Romain meffre biography of rory

French photographers

Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre
Born	Yves Marchand () January 5, (age&#;44) Romain Meffre () March 9, (age&#;37) Orsay, France Châtenay-Malabry, France
Occupation	photographer
Website

Yves Marchand (born January 5, ) and Romain Meffre (born March 9, ) are a French photography duo, working primarily with a large-format view camera and concentrating on photography of contemporary urban ruins.

Romain meffre biography of rory mcilroy There is also a slightly more political aspect to photograph disappearing objects. So once we were back from this trip in Detroit we started digging on the Cinema Treasures website which is meant to be an open database of all the cinemas that have ever existed, from the vanished ones to the ones that are still operating. Contentious material about living people that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately. As a photographer you just feel more useful documenting things that are about to disappear.

They live and work in Paris.

The Ruins of Detroit, their series from , introduced them to the general public.

Biography

Both natives of suburban Paris, Marchand and Meffre began practicing photography on their own in ,^[1] despite having no formal academic training. They met at the end of through a shared interest in contemporary ruins, introduced by Timothy Hannem, founder of Glauque-Land,^{[n 1]} one of the first French-language websites dedicated to exploring modern ruins.^[2] They then began their artistic collaboration by exploring the post-industrial ruins of suburban Paris.

Romain meffre biography of rory allen: Their series exhibit particular tenacity, demonstrating their ability to investigate locations deserted by their inhabitants. Awards [ edit ]. The city of Detroit was a metonym of the global financial crisis of For instance in the theaters series there are a lot of images of the repurposed theaters that wouldn't be understandable if they were placed at the beginning of the book.

At the start both Marchand and Meffre used their own 35 mm cameras, photographing abandoned historical buildings and sites in a state of decay or transition. Eventually, they stepped up their activity and expanded to other European countries.^[3] In October , they traveled to Detroit, the former capital of automobile production, a city that they discovered specifically through DetroitYES!, the website of Lowell Boileau,^{[n 2]} as well as through the works of Camilo José Vergara.

The result of this first trip was an exhibition in June at Kennory Kim Gallery in Paris.^[1] A photograph from the coll

In , Marchand and Meffre's photographs of ' Motor City' were noted by Time magazine, presenting their images for the first time in a portfolio on its website. An image from their series The Ruins of Detroit appeared on the cover of the October 5, , issue of Time,^[4] thus introducing their work to a wider audience.

Romain meffre biography of rory and dean JT Your work seems to me both heroic and dystopian. Instagram , opens in a new tab. But most of the apartments there are now still occupied and inhabited. Walker Theater, Brooklyn, NY,

Their project was subsequently reported on by newspapers and magazines (in particular El País, L'Espresso, The New York Times, The Guardian, Libération, Der Spiegel, Huffington Post^{[citation needed]}). The city of Detroit was a metonym of the global financial crisis of ^[5]

Marchand and Meffre met photographer Robert Polidori, photographer–author of books such as Zones of Exclusion: Pripyat and Chernobyl, Havana and After the Flood.

His large-scale photographs of architecture and interiors had a similar sensitivity to their own works, and Polidori himself visited Detroit in In , he introduced the duo to his publisher, Gerhard Steidl, who published their first book, The Ruins of Detroit, at the end of with an introduction by Polidori.^[6] The book was reprinted multiple times.

In , the pair traveled to Japan to begin a new series about Gunkanjima,^[7] an abandoned mining town on a small island. The series was published as a book in by Steidl.

Between and , Marchand and Meffre made several trips to Budapest to produce a series of typologies of the internal courtyards of the city's apartment buildings.^{[citation needed]}

The nature of their subjects has also led them to document various buildings before or during renovation, such as Hôtel-Dieu in Lyon, department stores in La Samaritaine and Pantin, or the International Fair in Tripoli, Lebanon.^{[citation needed]}

Marchand and Meffre continue their longtime series on post-industrial monuments and landscapes that they started in ^[1][7]

In , while continuing to work on their series about Detroit, Marchand and Meffre began photographing old movie theaters which either had been abandoned or had been repurposed and reused.

The series was completed in and was published in the book Movie Theaters by Prestel.

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Photography

"When visiting ruins, we have always tried to focus on remarkable buildings whose architecture strongly embodies the psychology of an era, of a system, and to observe and their metamorphoses", Marchand and Meffre have said about their work.^[7]

Marchand and Meffre are both influenced by the typological and encyclopedic aspects of the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher and the German photographers of Industrie-Kultur,^{[n 3]} as well as the large-format images of Robert Polidori.

Another important influence is the sociological vision of author and photographer Camilo José Vergara, as well as the entire culture of ruins exploration, examples of which can be found in photographic series with very obvious narrative and atmospheric aspects published by Henk van Rensbergen on the website Abandoned Places,^{[n 4]} one of the main websites dedicated to photographs of abandoned places in the early s.^[8][9] At the end of the decade, this culture of exploring ruins was grouped with other activities of visiting hidden or inaccessible places such as the mines of Paris or roof hacking under the term urbex, a blend of "urban exploration".^[10]

The pair explain that "when they photograph, no one has a predefined role, they share their ideas until they find the ideal point of view".^{[citation needed]}

Initially using their own 35 mm cameras, the photographers each purchased a 4&#;×&#;5-inch camera and returned to Detroit in October to continue their series.^[1] These cameras required a much lengthier and more meticulous set-up process, which led Marchand and Meffre to settle on using just one camera.

According to them, this was "the fairest and the most motivating way of producing an image".^[9] Each image was discussed and agreed on before taking it, thus sealing the formation of their duo. The camera allows them to make large prints.

Marchand and Meffre often shoot their images using long exposures in dimly-lit areas, using available light to respect the original atmosphere, which sometimes requires exposures as long as an hour.

When absolutely necessary, they use handmade battery-powered lights to paint the scene.^[11][12]

Projects

• – – The Ruins of Detroit
• – – Gunkanjima
• – – Budapest Courtyards
• – – Theaters
• – Les Ruines de Paris
• –ongoing – Industry

Collections

Books

• The Ruins of Detroit, Steidl,
• Gunkanjima, Steidl,
• Graffiti Général, Éditions Dominique Carré,
• Movie Theaters, Prestel,
• Les Ruines de Paris, Albin Michel,

Awards

• Deutscher Fotobuchpreis (The Ruins of Detroit), ^[13]
• Prix des libraires «&#;J' aime le livre d' art&#;» (Les Ruines de Paris),

Notes

References

External links