Extension until novembrer 5
The exhibition is the third part of a triptych about the collection of Florence and Damien Bachelot, after the Hôtel des Arts in Toulon in 2018 and the Villa Medici in Rome in 2022. The Reattu museum, thanks to its rich photographic department, has always forged close ties with artists, gallery owners and collectors all over the world. But for the first time in his history, he opens his rooms to a private collection. Deeply attached to the quality and historical value of the prints they acquire, Florence and Damien Bachelot have built up a unique collection over the past twenty years, now rich in nearly 1,000 works, which illustrate the different facets of humanist, documentary, and social photography from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day. The theme of the portrait is one of the main lines of the collection: “The essence of our collection is the human. It is not a deliberate choice, but an observation of our choices over time. In this spirit, it is logical that the portrait could be one of the cornerstones of the collection, with shots of single people or groups but also, more broadly, images that reflect human situations” (Damien Bachelot ). The portrait, as a faithful or distorting mirror of reality, makes it possible to decline the wide variety of looks that photographers have on their models, seeking to probe the meanderings of the mind through the body, the features of the face or the glance. As a genre, the portrait questions the missions traditionally assigned to photography – to identify, recognize, inventory, classify – and enlightens us, through the ages, on the sociological, political, religious, or cultural context of our societies.
120 works have been selected for the exhibition, which revolves around five highlights:
1 / Portraits from the Bachelot collection and museum collections
2 / Icons of photography
3 / Portraits of artists
4 / Story(s) of portraits
5 / The portrait, between photography and painting
This exhibition is part of the “Arles Associé” sequence of the Rencontres d’Arles
