Gilles Caron Colours
Photography exhibition
10 February — 5 March 2016
Monday to Friday from 2.00 pm to 6.30 pm Saturday from 11.00 am to 5.00 pm
Admission free
Blondeau & Cie
Rue de la Muse 5
1205 Genève – Switzerland
In line with its support for the Gilles Caron Foundation, the Fondation Bru is organising an exhibition of previously unpublished colour prints of the French photojournalist. After the success of the first showing in Venice, during the 2015 contemporary art Biennial, the exhibition, enhanced by new prints, is being held in Geneva.
The recent discovery of a group of rarely published Ektachromes by Gilles Caron (1939 – 1970) demonstrates with a new perspective the relationship between the photographer, known especially for his work in black and white, and his camera.
“Colour is indeed a topic almost at odds with the idea we have of news reporting, tradition upholding the value of black and white to the point of making it the prevailing orthodoxy. And yet, since the creation of the Gilles Caron Foundation, the work of reconstituting the photographer’s production yields its batch of colour images every year. Like his colleagues, Gilles Caron produced in colour, as the agencies of the 1960s required. But our culture and our photographic memory have, until now, taken little account of what colour can specifically bring out in news report pictures.” – Michel Poivert, Colours, Notes from the Gilles Caron Foundation, Issue No.1 .
This exhibition of colour prints–showcasing several unpublished works– is being organised with the support of Blondeau & Cie. which is lending its premises to Gilles Caron’s exceptional view of his time.
The prints are created on Cibachrome by Roland Dufau, the last living specialist of this procedure. In his work, Roland Dufau has highlighted a phrase of Robert J.Steinberg : “For me, the most sensual art object is a photo print wonderfully executed.” Cibachrome, a Swiss process of direct print on paper from a colour slide commercialised as of 1963, will soon disappear as the paper is no longer manufactured. This procedure remains the reference in colour printing with unique colour photograph material, whose archive quality reputation, richness of colours and great clarity is still, to this day, unsurpassed.
Students: permanent guests
Following on the commitments of Docteur Nicole Bru, the Bru Foundation attaches a critical importance to an education which gives, to children as to adults, the means to act and to take up the challenges of tomorrow. As well as its support for teaching programmes, the Foundation is keen to facilitate the participation of students in events it organizes, as far as that is possible.
Thus, students with a specialisation in photography from different art schools will be invited to visit the exhibition.
