With “summer culture” we go to the Arles festival where the exhibition 50 years in the eye of Libé begins. The photo meetings celebrate half a century of photojournalism with the daily “Liberation”, a major exhibition to see until September 24th.
The first photo that welcomes the visitor, at the Rencontres d’Arles, which takes place until September 24, made the front page of Release April 17, 1980. Jean-Paul Sartre has just died, Libé shows him walking on a dune in Lithuania. This unusual image was captured in 1965 by Lithuanian photographer Antanas Sutkus. Some 100 photos commissioned or published by Release since 1973 have been selected for this exhibition, “50 years in the eye of Libé”, visible until September 24. “It’s 50 years of immediate history, seen and told by photographers”explains Lionel Charrier, head of photography at Release and curator of the exhibition.
The “Libé” style
The greatest have collaborated with Releasein particular Martin Frank and Raymond Depardon, also seduced by the style Freed which leaves the photographer great freedom, inviting him to break the codes. Breaking the codes is what Jean Christian Bourcart did during the great strike of 1995 against the Juppé pension plan. “We see three demonstrators who have kepis on their heads. These three characters really seem to come out of nowhere. We don’t feel like we’re in a retirement demonstration, we feel like we’re with the Village People. It’s an image that catchesemphasizes Lionel Charrier.
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The double front page of September 12, 2001
Freed dare, invent to give the photo its rightful place. The day after the attacks of September 11, in 2001, an image unfolds entirely on the first and last page of the newspaper: “It’s the first double one that has been done without a headline, without a title really”remembers Lionel Charrier.
For 50 years, Release tells in photos the world as it is, giving a large place to the report. But the daily also published quirky portraits of politicians or artists: thus in 1984 Patrick Duval photographed Serge Gainsbourg at home, in his bed almost entirely naked.
“50 years in the eye of Libé”, an exhibition to see at the Rencontres de la photo d’Arles, at the Abbey of Montmajour, until September 24.