Béchet Jean Christophe - Macadam Color Street Photography
In this new book, Jean-Christophe Béchet revisits his work and selects around one hundred photographs taken throughout his career that directly question the different situations specific to this photographic genre.
Three in-depth interviews with Michel Poivert, Jean-Luc Monterosso, and Sylvie Hugues accompany this exploration. They provide an opportunity to reflect on the specific nature of this practice, to question its very essence, to consider its implications, and to attempt to define some of its contours. From this emerged the idea of creating a photographic manifesto that offers a unique and contemporary interpretation of street photography.
For Jean-Christophe Béchet, “Street photography, long associated with reportage, has become an autonomous genre specific to photographic culture. Portraiture, landscape, nudes, still life… all originate from painting. The notion of reportage also exists in video, film, and radio. Yet the exploration of the street, its everyday life, its ‘extraordinary’ banality, truly exists only in photography. And most photographers were inspired by seeing snapshots captured in urban spaces, those of André Kertész, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank, and so many others (…). The reporter, and even more so the photojournalist, works either on moments of crisis (within the framework of ‘news’) or on powerful, staged stories (magazine features). The ‘street photographer,’ on the other hand, captures unique snapshots by focusing on quiet moments, on everyday and mundane situations, without any significant event.” Visually, he is not helped by the power of his subject; the entire interest of his photograph comes from his art of framing, his speed of action, his impertinence, his reading of light. And also, of course, from his vision of the world.
First edition limited to 1,200 copies, color photographs.
Title: Macadam Color Street Photography
Author: Béchet Jean-Christophe
ISBN: 9782843140662
Publisher: Loco
Language: French
Publication Date: 2022
Edition: 1st edition (Limited to 1200 copies)
Format: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good (small, light signs of wear)