Author: Pierre Bessard

Me with our last photobook by Ed Templeton, and Uwe Bedenbecker with the last Zine Collection Dialectics of Nature, we stop at this number the Zine Collection!, Agne with his Reliefs (zine collection) and Philippe Herbet with Les Filles de Tourgueniev

Where (six minutes by walk from the Grand Palais)
Bateau Concorde Atlantique
Berges de Seine – Port de Solferino
75007 Paris
PARIS, a boat by the river, a coffee shop, a terrace, and photobook publishers from all over the world…

These are some of the ingredients we’ve mixed together hoping to create a book market with a festival-like atmosphere. This second edition of this « salon des livres » is taking place on the boat Concorde-Atlantique below the Musée d’Orsay.
During four days, running parallel to the Paris Photo fair, 35 publishers will bring you a large selection of newly published books, organizing numerous meetings and signings with photographers.

Where
Bateau Concorde Atlantique
Berges de Seine – Port de Solferino
75007 Paris

PARIS, a boat by the river, a coffee shop, a terrace, and photobook publishers from all over the world…

These are some of the ingredients we’ve mixed together hoping to create a book market with a festival-like atmosphere. This second edition of this « salon des livres » is taking place on the boat Concorde-Atlantique below the Musée d’Orsay.
During four days, running parallel to the Paris Photo fair, 35 publishers will bring you a large selection of newly published books, organizing numerous meetings and signings with photographers.

Maybe it was my wish to leave behind the small child perspective temporarily.
Maybe the feeling to be able to conquer a small piece of nature was the reason for me to climb up trees in my childhood.
However that be falling off of a tree became one of my first experiences of the dangers of nature, maybe a kind of revenge towards my attempts to conquest…

I have chosen to display some unknown faces and give them a platform to put their daily life, aspirations and constraints into perspective. My documentary is built by drawing an imaginary line from the northern suburbs of Amiens,
in northern France, to the northern quarters of Marseille in south of France.

« A French youth » is a story that takes the opposite view to stereotypes and prejudices regarding French working-class areas and people who are suffering. It’s a story about a certain misunderstanding of French history : most of French citizens have foreign roots and their personal stories are marked by migration. But they are suffering from a poor public image. And the January 15th terrorist attacks in Paris have contributed to their stigmatization.
Nowadays, the French youth living in the working-class areas is for a large part Muslim and from the African continent. They build the multicultural French society. These young people are an evidence of present times. They are an indication for the future. The documentary “ A French youth” doesn’t want to give a naïve and optimistic picture of reality. Its main aim is to deal with reality, shed light on these unknown faces and share the everyday life of youth from French poor areas. Following an imaginary line running from the Northern districts of Amiens to the Northern neighbourhoods of Marseille, through suburbs in Paris and Lyon, “A French youth” picks up, step by step, through encounters, the issues young people have to face.
Following several personal itineraries, for a few weeks, we live with them side by side in their environment, and share their joy and their sorrow. “A French Youth” documents a History of the present time.
The northern districts of Amiens are characterized by the presence of white people and a melting pot. Emmanuel is 23 years old. He has just got out of jail after serving a 5 year sentence.
Now he returns to his family flat, in the “Pigeonnier” area. He’s back with his mother and sister. Emmanuel picks up the old habits of his neighborhood’s building n°9, places where he is also used to killing time with his childhood fellows. This is the story of a young man, who first was rejected by the educational system, who was then unable to find a job, but still struggles to find his way. However, a few months later, Emmanuel disappears. No one knows where he is. A new Court decision has decided he would shortly be forced to return to prison. He couldn’t cope with the idea and run away.
The Paris suburbs are separated from the national capital by a super-ring road round the city. It is an impassable frontier for young people from suburbs. Ali is 15. He was brought up in a single parent and modest home and left school early. Now, he aimlessly wanders in his neighborhood of Villetaneuse (Seine-Saint-Denis department). This is the only place where he feels safe. He is afraid to get in trouble with young people from neighboring areas and doesn’t feel comfortable anywhere else. It is a physical and a mental barrier that afflicts a number of young people from the suburbs. Mehdi, 19, lives in Épinay (Seine-Saint-Denis). He too dropped out of school at 16 without a diploma. He too wanders in his district. Under pressure from his mother, Mehdi has decided to take training conducted by a local association. This organization offers him refresher courses, helps him define his own targets and build his professional project.
This gloomy scene must not overshadow opportunities. Saber, 23, lives in Les Mureaux, a distant suburb, south of Paris. He also had training but he symbolizes creativity, excellence and use of initiative within this youth. Indeed, he is a new entrepreneur, and set up a street trading food company. Furthermore, Saber’s aim is to leave his neighbourhood and the life that goes with it.
Indeed, many young people from suburbs constantly feel the need to leave it. “Les Halles” is a shopping centre in the heart of Paris connected by public transport to the suburbs. Every week-ends, large groups of young boys, girls, lovers come in from their neighborhood in search of new horizons and tranquillity.
The Lyon suburbs have been the scenes of riots since the 80’s. No one expects anything any more from the political system. The youth from these suburbs have given up expecting anything from left-wing parties, unlike the previous generation who had hopes to achieve a better life. The present generation feel that they have to take care of their future themselves, including by using unlawful ways. The divorce is pronounced with the Republic and the system in place which they face.
Béné, 15, lives in Vaulx-en-Velin, south neighborhood. Even if he is strongly attached to his regional identity, he turns his back to the values and questions the legitimacy of the Republic. The void tends to be filled by religions: Islam and evangelical Christianity. Wafa, 23, lives in Saint-Étienne, a few kilometers away. She has a deep faith. She has worn her hijad for 3 years and she turned her attention to her Muslim community. This is also in her view an appropriate answer to the way women are considered in her district, a response to the phoney promises from society and its market goals.
The Northern part of Marseille has been the subject of media spotlight due to a series of murders linked to drugs cartels. But there’s more to this youth’s everyday life than what these highlights show.
It’s true that many of them experience a routine violence from an early age.
Young inhabitants from Pyat quarter called “Guirri” formed a gangsta rap band. The lyrics of their songs describe young dealers’s everyday life. They are aged between 17 and 22. They run their own drug deals and they are familiar with street fights, but at the same time they try to build a future for their rap group. They are even models for children, like Béné from Lyon who follows them on Facebook. A lot of young people are more or less involved with unlawful activities. Sometimes, they are involved in smuggling narcotics for a few euro but the rest of the time, they attend school or try to find employment with difficulty.

Les Filles de Tourguéniev
projet photographique de Philippe Herbet

L’écrivain russe Ivan Sergueïevitch Tourguéniev a créé dans ses romans et nouvelles des personnages de jeunes femmes que l’on pourrait facilement qualifier de “romantiques ». Ses héroïnes sont introverties, très sensibles, elles ont grandi dans des domaines éloignés de la ville, loin de la haute société ou en marge. Elles ont entre 17 et 25 ans, elle sont volontiers capricieuses, indépendantes, rebelles, dans la mesure où les femmes pouvaient l’être au XIXe siècle. Rebelles car elles suivent toujours leurs idées : elles aiment qui elles aiment et suivent l’inclinaison de leurs coeurs, en dépit des avis défavorables de leurs familles ou de leurs tuteurs, certaines sont des enfants naturels.
Elles sont remarquables et remarquées, pas toujours belles au sens plastique du terme, elles peuvent être considérées comme des laiderons, mais elles sont toujours très charmantes, désarmantes, imprévisibles; insaisissables. Idéalistes, en recherche d’elles-mêmes, en quête du vrai, du beau, du haut, d’une certaine forme de pureté ; elles ont en elles beaucoup de volonté. Entêtées, elles se fixent des objectifs et, avec beaucoup de détermination, elles n’hésitent pas à se sacrifier pour l’accomplissement de leurs idées. Oui, sentimentales, mais aussi plus, un engagement envers leurs sentiments.
Ainsi, les premières femmes “émancipées” de la Russie de la fin du XIXe siècle s’étaient mises à “imiter” ces héroïnes, ces personnages de papier et d’encre. Elles sont tombées en désuétude au temps de la Révolution de 1917. Jusqu’au début des années trente, elles sont considérées comme des “reliques” du XIXe siècle, mais au cours de la seconde guerre mondiale, elles reviennent au devant de la scène, elles sont alors vues comme des héroïnes et le personnage de Fille de Tourguéniev devient une sorte d’idéal.
Le temps passant, leurs caractères se sont donc peu à peu éloignés des romans et nouvelles de Tourguéniev, pour devenir des femmes émancipées, des héroïnes, des personnages liés au passé, voire passéistes, avec une dimension soit péjorative, soit affirmative d’une identité. On les désigne comme étant des filles romantiques, idéalistes, tendres, pleurnicheuses, sentimentales, poétiques, fines, touchantes, qui ne savent ou ne veulent pas s’adapter au monde contemporain, modestes, démodées, elles ne se teignent pas les cheveux, se maquillent très discrètement – lorsqu’elles se maquillent -, dansent la valse, rougissent lorsqu’elles entendent des impolitesses, elles ont des principes moraux bien établis et solides, dévouées, elles appartiennent à différentes couches sociales, elles ne sont pas réunies en réseau.
Je suis allé à leur découverte à Saint-Pétersbourg, à Moscou, à Minsk et dans les campagnes de la Russie profonde, là où étaient sis les domaines de Tourguéniev, de Tolstoï, d’Ivan Bounine et de Bakounine. Et je les ai photographiées chez elles, dans les rues et j’ai associé à leurs photos des éléments symboliques liés à leurs existences comme le lait, la pomme, l’arbre, les icônes… J’avais en tête toute une iconographie liée à la Renaissance italienne et au XVIIe siècle hollandais qui m’a nourri lors de mes prises de vues.
J’ai observé deux tendances à l’heure actuelle, l’une concerne plutôt des jeunes femmes vraiment démodées, ternes, pas très ouvertes sur le monde contemporain, voire alternatives, plus “intègres” par rapport au caractère original. Elles cousent des robes, tricotent, ne lisent que de la littérature classique, n’écoutent que de la musique classique, mènent une vie saine, s’alimentent de produits naturels, elles tournent le dos à l’agitation. Une autre tendance, plus à l’opposé, s’accommode beaucoup plus du monde d’aujourd’hui, il s’agit plutôt de femmes adeptes d’une mode néo-rétro, vintage, s’accompagnant parfois d’un retour à des valeurs solides, aux spécificités ultra locales, voire nationalisantes. Une mode ? Une marque de luxe russe a ouvert des boutiques à Moscou dont les collections sont inspirées du XIXe siècle et des filles de Tourguéniev : villaturgenev.ru.
Les Filles de Tourguéniev du XXI siècle sont, comme nous l’avons deviné plurielles, elles sont de plus en plus populaires et font partie d’un paysage culturel russe – au sens large – en pleine redéfinition. Il est parfois difficile de déceler celles qui suivent une mode vintage, comme un peu partout dans le monde, et si cette mode est un reflet de valeurs traditionnelles ou d’une nostalgie de temps meilleurs, plus doux ; de celles, plus originales, plus originelles, des personnages créés par Tourguéniev. Il y a, certes, des gradations qui dépendent, naturellement, de leur environnement social (étant donné, je le qu’elles appartiennent à différentes couches sociales et qu’elles ne sont pas en “réseau”).
Les filles de Tourguéniev sont dans le temps et hors du temps, dans le monde et hors du monde. S’extraire du monde dans son mouvement superficiel, du monde des “apparences”, du monde de l’actualité, de l’agitation, du faux, du brillant où, finalement, rien ne brûle, c’est prendre une position, c’est un acte, et même un engagement. Peut-être sont-elles des résistantes, du moins certaines d’entre elles.
Je les sens aussi très proches de ces femmes de Vermeer, dans leurs maisons monde, qui traversent les siècles pour nous ravir et toujours nous parler de notre humanité.
Peut-être que ces filles n’existent pas, elles ne sont qu’un idéal, un cliché, des images, une image, une image collective récupérée par la mode dans certains cas et, dans d’autres, par ce désir de s’identifier, de se singulariser. Rêves, utopie. Je n’en sais rien.
Une monographie paraîtra chez Bessard à Paris réunissant un corpus de photographies, de textes liés à mes rencontres et de documents.

Philippe Herbet

New book by Ed Templeton presented as an accordion-fold continuous book which spans 27 feet once extended. Ed Templeton said about this photobook: 26 miles across
the Pacific Ocean from the tangled mess of humanity that is Los Angeles and
Orange County sits an island paradise called Santa Catalina where time has
stood still and visitors can experience what California was like before the
Europeans sailed in. Adventures in the
Nearby Far Away is a photographic diary of my many visits to the island
over the years, a place I have been visiting since I was a boy, and been
documenting photographically since the late 90¹s. All photos are shot on
film.

PARIS, a boat by the river, a coffee shop, a terrace, and photobook publishers from all over the world…

These are some of the ingredients we’ve mixed together hoping to create a book market with a festival-like atmosphere. This second edition of this « salon des livres » is taking place on the boat Concorde-Atlantique below the Musée d’Orsay.
During four days, running parallel to the Paris Photo fair, 35 publishers will bring you a large selection of newly published books, organizing numerous meetings and signings with photographers.
When
Wednesday 11 November > 12h-21h
Thursday 12 November > 11h-21h
Friday 13 November > 11h-22h / from 22hrs-open end: “Photographer’s night”
Saturday 14 November > 11h-18h

Where
Bateau Concorde Atlantique
Berges de Seine – Port de Solferino
75007 Paris