On the occasion of the retrospective dedicated to Philippe Schuller until October 1, the Lyon Municipal Archives offers, in parallel to his photographs, another sensitive entry into the photographer’s work. Five short videos produced by film and audiovisual students explore, through different prisms, the gaze, the technique and the universe of this complete artist.
Dissecting every detail or taking a step back in the work, absorbing the gaze of the models he photographed or questioning that of the spectators… The five pairs of students of the Master 1 “Cinema and Audiovisual” of the Université Lumière Lyon 2, set out to explore a unique angle to offer a new point of view on the work of Philippe Schuller. In two or three minutes they offer us brief clips that make us discover his photographic vision and the role of the photographer, in the intimacy of his studio and even within his images. With delicacy and precision, they question the portrait, the technique, the assembly and selection work, the microcosm that gravitates around the photographer and the questions of the eye, the interpretation, the evocation of the photographs.
In “Portrait d’un portraitiste”, Isabelle Bernoux and Liliia Safiullina help us understand the choices of frame, colors and decoration that guide Philippe Schuller in his portraits, which are said to be “not sad, but a bit nostalgic”. Guided by his soft and smiling voice until he lends himself to the self-portrait game, we understand the need to look at his work and listen to him advising everyone “not to be afraid. To take lots of photos.
This multitude of planes is illustrated in “A moment of contact” by Li Blache-Chauvet and Reihaneh Jami: a bubble that transports us to the work of selection, choice, the eye fixed on the contact sheet. “The first one was correct. Sometimes it is the last, after having done a lot of research. With humor, he enters us into this work made of red notes, underlined clichés, making us feel the complexity of the choice, of entrusting the work to others, of images of mourning that seemed good to one.
Images that Philippe Schuller works on approaching, to return to the essential, to be in the essence of a moment that may seem uninteresting. This is what he poetically shows in “L’essentiel dans la banalité” by Monica Comparelli and Galane Legal, which explores research in black and white, “when the subject dominates”. We understand the desire to get as close as possible to the emotion, these moments of truth, even if it means poor framing, even if it means not aiming, to reveal the power of a moment.
And in “Déployer l’image” by Salomé Kerrand and Jules Sanchez, we switch to the other side to discover the eyes of four spectators who indulge in highly personal interpretations of two of the photographer’s shots before Philippe Schuller himself discovers the context real. of these shots. A video that shows the evocative power of photography.
And this is also what invites us to do “Rêverie” by Adrien Forray and Kevin Sigaut. It takes us into a story imagined from the photographer’s plans before inviting us to do the same by immersing ourselves in a series where water guides us and where each one can interpret the work as they see fit.
A series of sensitive videos that raise the question of the gaze and invite us to take the time to understand, to go into detail in the photos, to truly appropriate them.
Philippe Schuller is distributed and represented by Signatures of La Maison de Photographes.
For more information
Philippe Schuller, Photographs
An exhibition curated by the artist Marie Maniga and Mourad Laangry
In the Municipal Archive of Lyon
From March 4 to October 1, 2022
Website of the Municipal Archives of Lyon
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