Revue de presse #62 – Juin 2018

Man Sleeping. Joubert Park, Johannesburg 1975, printed 2013 © David Goldblatt [Source : http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/P80499]

Le photographe sud-africain David Goldblatt est décédé le 25 juin dernier à l’âge de 87 ans à Johannesburg. Alors qu’une grande rétrospective au Centre Pompidou le célébrait au printemps dernier, nous souhaitons nous souvenir de son engagement de toute une vie, afin de documenter “cette matrice grise, qui entravait tous les aspects de l’existence” qu’étaient le régime de l’apartheid et ses prolongements après 1994.

Cette revue de presse est aussi dédiée à la mémoire du photographe malien Alioune Bâ, décédé à Bamako le 18 juin à l’âge de 59 ans. Photographe au Musée national du Mali pendant près d’un quart de siècle, son “approche de l’art qui consist(ait)”, d’après les mots de Youssouf Doumbia, “à se mettre au service de la société et de la communauté”.

Fotota soutient les campagnes de financement participatif suivantes :

Neuf jours avant la clôture de l’appel à participations pour financer un ouvrage portant sur l’oeuvre du photographe kényan Priya Ramrakha édité par Shravan Vidyarthi et Erin Haney, toutes les informations ici !

Hommage à Alioune Bâ (1959-2018)

Photographie : Alioune Bâ, un grand professionnel s’est éteint, par Youssouf Doumbia, Bamada, le 22/06/18 ;

“Alioune Ba appartient à la génération de photographes maliens qui ont pris conscience de l’importance de leur travail à partir des premières éditions de la Rencontre africaine de la photographie à Bamako, au milieu des années 1990. La création de cette grande manifestation leur a donné l’occasion de se révéler au monde entier. En novembre 2017, il a présenté une exposition au Mémorial Modibo Keïta, intitulée «Lobbo» qui signifie « jolie femme » en langue nationale peulh. Cette exposition était consacrée aux différents types de violences qui s’exacerbent dans notre société. Elle dénonçait spécifiquement les violences faites aux femmes lors de l’occupation des régions du nord de notre pays, en 2012.

(…) Sur toute l’étendue du territoire, il couvrait les cérémonies rituelles et autres fêtes traditionnelles. Des photos qui servent, aujourd’hui, à constituer une archive en images pour les générations à venir.”

Hommages à David Goldblatt (1930-2018)

David Goldblatt: Mensch, mentor and master, par Paul Weinberg, City Press, le 1/07/18 ;

“David the photographer was a colossus among his peers. He held a mirror to South African society. Whether on the mines, among Afrikaners, in Soweto, through our architectural structures, or reflections and refractions of our scarred, but beautiful, landscape.

He was deeply committed to this place, exploring and excavating its contradictions and imperfections. It is here he resonated, the photographer and the storyteller. No other environment attracted him.

(…) South African reality drove and deeply troubled him at the same time. As he once said: “Something in reality takes me. It arouses, irritates, beguiles. I want to approach, explore, see it with all the intensity and clarity that I can. Not to purchase, colonise or appropriate, but to experience its isness and distil this in photographs.””

Through a Lens Darkly: David Goldblatt (1930-2018), par Peter Wilhelm, Daily Maverick, le 27/06/18 ;

Obituary: David Goldblatt, photographer, 1930-2018, par Diane Smyth, British Journal of Photography, le 26/06/18 ;

““David was very critical of people who made propaganda, and he would use that word,” says Sean O’Toole, the Cape Town-based arts writer. “He tried to directly respond to the people he photographed and to the complexity of what he saw. He was not just photographing the now. His images delivered nuance that front-line photography didn’t. He wasn’t shooting in that impactful way that would appeal to the hard left – what he was creating was very subtle, nuanced pictures.”

(…) “David wanted to remove his judgement from his photography,” says Karolina Ziebinska-Lewandowska, the Centre Pompidou curator who worked on a huge retrospective of Goldblatt’s work shown at the institution earlier this year. “He always said that if a photograph serves a certain idea, even if it’s a good idea, the idea always takes precedence and the photography then contains a judgement. He felt that he should record the facts, and leave the judgement to the viewer.””

Saying goodbye to South Africa’s legendary David Goldblatt, par Neelika Jayawardane, Al Jazeera, le 26/07/18 ;

“(…) he was very interested in the events that were taking place in the country as a citizen”, he once said, “[those] events don’t interest me photographically. They are of course important, and I watch them very closely. But photographically, I’m much more interested in the underbelly, the situation and the values that lead to the event”.

In pictures: South African photographer David Goldblatt, who captured the harsh reality of apartheid, dies aged 87, par Gareth Harris, The Art Newspaper, le 25/06/18 ;

“‘During those [early] years my prime concern was with values, what did we value in South Africa, how did we get to those values and how did we express those values,’ said Goldblatt.

(…) Following uprisings at the University of Cape Town in 2015, he withdrew his archive and the collection of works he had promised as a bequest to the university. In a controversial move, he subsequently transferred his entire archive of negatives to Yale University in the US. Crucially, a digital archive of Goldblatt’s work will be created in South Africa and made available to the public for free through an initiative named the Photographic Legacy Project (the scheme is spearheaded by Goodman Gallery).”

Archive – David Goldblatt: 1930-2018, Magnum Photos, le 25/06/18 ;

“David is the lodestar of South African photography, but also a towering moral and intellectual guide in person. It is hard to imagine that he is no longer with us. He was endlessly generous with his help and guidance, and his brutal honesty was a gift to all of us.” – Mikhael Subotzky

Mort du photographe sud-africain David Goldblatt, par Siegfried Forster, RFI, le 25/06/18 ;

“Aujourd’hui, David Goldblatt reste un modèle pour la jeune génération de photographes comme Zanele Muholi, une des artistes sud-africaines contemporaines les plus percutantes de nos jours. « Goldblatt est un mentor pour moi et j’admire son travail. C’est quelqu’un qui nous a donné le droit de nous exprimer. Grâce à lui nous pouvons parler avec des voix différentes à partir du même espace. »

(…) J’oublie des choses, je suis incapable de prendre des notes correctement. Donc, je ne suis pas un journaliste. Je ne suis pas un sociologue. Je ne suis pas un criminologue. Je ne suis pas un psychiatre. Je suis juste un observateur, un observateur critique de la société dans laquelle je vis.”

Le photographe David Goldblatt est mort, par Chloé Leprince, France Culture, le 25/06/18 ;

“Pour cette première grande rétrospective qui lui était consacrée en France, quelques semaines finalement avant qu’il meure, Goldblatt avait réalisé lui-même une série de vidéos détaillant sa démarche de “complexité toute simple“, à mi-chemin entre professions de foi et petit précis de l’histoire de la photographie sud-africaine (nombreuse et féconde).”

DES NOUVELLES DES PHOTOGRAPHES

Unravelling Olagunju’s Mind (Episode 1), par Dare Dan, Medium, le 14/06/18 ;

‘Living and breathing’: the slave trade legacy – in pictures, par Nicola Lo Calzo, The Guardian, le 12/06/18 ;

EXPOSITIONS

The Surprising History Of Old-Timey Swahili Postcards, par Melody Schreiber, NPR, le 10/06/18 ;

“These portraits were captured in photography studios throughout Kenya, Tanzania and Somalia from the 1890s to the 1920s. The images offer glimpses into the subjects’ lives — and have an unusual history. Unbeknownst to the subjects, photographers often turned the negatives from private shoots into postcards for Westerners to sell or send back home as mementos from their East African trips.

Prita Meier, the co-curator, chose these postcards because “they show the compelling and amazing ways” that people living on the Swahili coast quickly embraced photography, especially portraits, and made the art their own. (…)

Not long after photography was introduced to East Africa in the 1860s, studios sprouted up in cities like Mombasa, in what is now Kenya, and Zanzibar’s Old Town, she explains. Soon people from all walks of life began sitting for portraits taken by local photographers in small studios.”

Photographers Connect Africa’s Diaspora Back to the Continent, par Seph Rodney, Hyperallergic, le 1/06/18 ;

El Senegal elegante de la primera mitad del siglo XX. Anónimos de Saint-Louis y Mama Casset, Fundación Ankaria, Círculo de Bellas Artes y PHotoESPAÑA, du 7 juin au 28 août 2018 ;

BIENNALE DE DAKAR

Dakar, the city of light (photographies d’Émilie Régnier), Vogue Italia, le 11/06/18 ;

“This is a collaborative project between Émilie Régnier, a Canadian-Haitian art photographer, and Ellen Elias, Swedish-Eritrean stylist custom designer, both based in Paris.
During this year’s biennale, Emilie and Ellen merge their respective creative wit to celebrate the magical light of Dakar.”

La Biennale de Dakar en images, Le Monde.fr avec Reuters, le 6/06/18 ;

L’ora del rinascimento africano al festival Dak’Art, par Andrea de Georgio, Internazionale, le 3/06/18 ;

PUBLICATIONS

Third Text Africa, Volume 5, ‘Mozambique’ (en accès libre)

ARCHIVES

Paul Kodjo dans l’édition de 20h du journal télévisé du samedi 2 Juin 2018 ;

Nigerian women’s elaborate hairstyles – in pictures, The Guardian, sans date ;

“The acclaimed Nigerian photographer JD ’Okhai Ojeikere spent 40 years immortalising nearly 1,000 of these hairstyles, until his death in 2014. “Apart from being fascinated by their beauty and the artistic nature of each hairstyle, he documented them for posterity,” says his son, photographer Amaize Ojeikere. There is a danger, he adds, that these skills will be lost. “Particularly now the younger generation think it is ‘old-school’. That is one of the reasons the images were taken: to showcase the beauty of our people.””

DÉBATS

Restituer les biens culturels à l’Afrique : idée d’avenir ou dépassée ?, par Jean-Jacques Neuer, Le Monde, le 10/06/18 ;

Ellen DeGeneres is the Latest White Celebrity to Take a Picture With Smiling ‘African’ Children, par Damola Durosomo, OkayAfrica, s.d. ;

“It’s a familiar narrative at this point, you know the one: a bright-eyed, maybe even well-meaning, white person travels to “Africa”—no need to name the specific country, of course—for a trip. While there, they make sure to snap pictures with the poor “African” children—remember, no country specificity necessary—to show the great work that they’re doing, how life-changing the trip was, and how empathetic they’ve now become to the suffering of others.”

Through the Lens: How Photography Became Africa’s Most Popular Art Form, par Sean O’Toole, ArtNews, le 19/06/18 ;

LES ANNONCES DU MOIS

Annonce des lauréats du CAP PRIZE 2018 ;

Contemporary African Photography Prize winners announced, par Diane Smyth, British Journal of Photography, le 14/06/18.