Posted at 8:15 a.m.
The piercing gaze of Greta Thunberg, the raised fist of Jane Fonda in front of the Capitol in Washington, a damaged house in Gaspésie, a man in Chicago who works in a delicate position on his family jewels (photo titled man’s weak point), Carey Price in the solitude of his helmet on the Bell Center ice…
Visiting My America, the new exhibition of photographs by Jean-René Dufort presented at the Center d’art Diane-Dufresne, in Repentigny, there is a small contrast between the humor of the texts and the mostly very serious subjects of the photos they accompany . The editorial spirit ofInfoman is never far from the guy, and Jean-René Dufort explains to me that his passion for photography, which was his first job when he was a student before it became a hobby, helps him a lot to test the waters for his television reports. “It always helped me in everything,” he says. When I leave for Infoman somewhere, I always try to take a few hours to go take pictures, because I find that the observer comes before the clown. If I haven’t “sized” the place, and how the people are, it’s tough to know after that how far I can go. »
My America was designed to complement the superb exhibition The Dashing Cowboys already underway at the Center d’art Diane-Dufresne — it’s worth treating yourself to this two-for-one in one visit. Jean-René Dufort finds that the group that gave us America is crying is very North American, because it shares its cultural codes. He is very fond of Elvis Gratton’s famous tirade on the troubled identity of Quebecers, these “Canadians-Americans-Quebecers-Francophones-of North America”, etc.
“This piece ofElvis Gratton always made me laugh. In all these identities, the only identity we are certain of is that we are North Americans. Everyone agrees on that. I thought it was an interesting base to start digging into the photo box. »
Thus, Jean-René Dufort has selected some forty photos taken over at least two decades, which adorn the walls of the art center. They are all in black and white, which is his “religion” as a photographer, he admits. “I don’t know why, I find that black and white adds nobility to photos. If you pose for a portrait in color, that’s fine, but in black and white, suddenly, you look like a great theater actor! »
The dramatic effect is undeniable, it is true. “Even the “milk” becomes beautiful,” he notes.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, ARCHIVES LA PRESSE
Jean-René Dufort, who has already published a book with his travel photos, this time exhibits photographs on the theme of America.
There is a beautiful decrepitude in America, I think. It’s a little Wild West side, with abandoned houses, things lying around. I was in Alberta recently, and there’s a town where they made a giant sausage 42 feet tall. But why ? It’s only in America that we do that. No one in Europe would think of making a sausage 42 feet tall…
Jean-Rene Dufort
Since the time he travels and puts his photographer’s eye everywhere, how has he seen this America evolve? “I really like Claude Poirier’s phrase which says: it goes the way it’s run. I think America is going the way it’s run. As much as there is at all crooked, as much there is marvelous. At the same time, and this is the paradox, what I find most photogenic in a big city are its slums, its graffiti, its itinerants. It touches my side Infoman, in the sense that the worse it goes, the more there is a side of me that is happy, the one that makes the show, but on the other side, the citizen that I am is unhappy. »
Like in the Cowboys Fringants song, does America have something to cry about? “Yes, but that’s what is weird with America: as much as it depresses us, it makes us laugh and fascinates us. They are rendered with a gun per square foot in the United States, but we still dream of going to New York or Chicago, and we still find that it’s cool, Las Vegas. »
In addition to this nice exhibition, in a place that Jean-René Dufort praises — he believes that there should be art centers like that in every city in Quebec — the animator-photographer will record the fourth season of the ’emission The big lab, so he won’t take a lot of vacations. And unlike a lot of citizens, because he’s an Infoman after all, he’s super excited about the elections coming up in the fall. “We will never get tired of holding elections,” he says, smiling sincerely. There’s always business, and when you think there’s nothing left, that’s where there’s the most of it. We tell ourselves that the politicians will have learned that they will no longer make videos with an iPhone by the river when it is windy, but they make them anyway. It is a bottomless happiness. At the office, we put a lot of hope in Éric Duhaime’s group of candidates. »
It could be the subject of a future exhibition, who knows. At least, if Infoman leaves enough room for the photographer.
Exhibitions My America by Jean-René Dufort and The Dashing Cowboys are presented until October 2 at the Center d’art Diane-Dufresne (11, allée de la Création, Repentigny).