Pierrot Men
Till August 31:
Exposition photographique
Aux Domaines Rouvinez VINS, ch. des Bernardines 45, 3960 Sierre. Suisse
Till September 21:
Galerie Capazza 18330 Nançay en Sologne
www.capazza-galerie.com
About:
Born in Madagascar in 1954 from a Franco-Malagasy mother and a Chinese father, Pierrot Men (which literally means “light” in Chinese) is an internationally renowned photographer. Laureate of the Mother Jones International Fund Documentary Photography and winner of the Leica pPrize (USA), his photographs are regularly exhibited worldwide: from Paris to Brussels, Bamako, Las Palmas or Algiers, through Antananarivo or Saint-Denis de La Réunion.
He lives and works on the island, and is the founder and manager of a photo lab that bears his name.
The series ‘Coleur’ was made in Madagascar.
Quotes from interview:
A: My first love was painting. I started painting in 1972 and my last canvas dates to 1989. I mainly did oil paintings, copied from my photos. One day, a friend discovered my painting and my photos. She told me that my photos were a lot better and that I should stop painting! At the time, in 1974, I had just opened a little photo studio in a very poor neighbourhood of Fianarantsoa where I did family portraits and ID photos. I used to travel around to photograph weddings, birthdays, turning of the dead ceremonies (*see footnote), football matches, etc. I did this to make a living, but it also enabled me to familiarize myself with and master the camera.
In 1985, Dany Be, the pioneering Madagascan photographer and also a great friend, invited me to take part in an exhibition in the capital. It was a collective show in which I exhibited ten photos. It was my first exhibition and the audience encouraged me. Since then, I have exhibited in Tananarive every year, right up until now. That’s how my photographic career got started.
Q: After some 35 years of companionship with a camera, how do you consider the evolution of your work today? Do you often go back over your archives?
A: I am very lucky; my eye has not yet tired. I still bear the same gaze on my people and I still get as much pleasure from looking at my archives. I don’t just look at them. Whether in my old black and white lab or on my computer screen; I still enjoy rediscovering certain images or even bringing them to life again when – which isn’t that rare – I discover old pictures that I hadn’t noticed before.
Q: Madagascar and its inhabitants have always been at the heart of your photographic work. After so many years of bearing a loving gaze on this country, do you feel that there are subjects you haven’t yet explored?
A: I have wasted a lot of time. My best pictures are those that come to me naturally, but today I go looking for them more. It’s a new stage, a new approach. There are plenty of other photographic subjects to explore. I have, above all, photographed the Southeast and its coast because it’s the land of my childhood, of my family, my ancestors. This photographic combat is unending, but it is true that going to discover other places, other peoples on the main island appeals to me more and more.
(quotes from the LEICA CAMERA BLOG)
www.pierrotmen.com
Copyright: Pierrot Men