URBAN INTIMACY AT PARIS PLAGE


  • Photographer
    Myriam TANGI
  • Prize
    Honorable Mention
  • Date of Photograph
    2009
  • Technical Info
    Argentic black and white

How to photograph intimacy by respecting the anonymity of those which voluntarily, expose it ? At the traditional beach, everyone is on the same plan, comes for the same reason. Everyone is exposed, equalizing the glances as in a mirror. At “P.P.”, the beach is built like a scene, where come two categories of amateurs : those which come to bronze – those which come to walk and enjoy the various activities ….of which the exposure of the others is also a element. My photographic gesture try to restore the game of it, with the embarrassment in seeing without being indiscreet.

Story

URBAN INTIMACY AT PARIS PLAGE



How to photograph intimacy by respecting the anonymity of those which voluntarily expose it ?
Such was the challenge of this project around this new urban space hitherto unknown : “Paris Plage”.
With the traditional beach, at the seaside, everyone is on the same plan, comes for the same reason. Everyone is exposed, equalizing the glances as in a mirror. The rule is known and is the same for everyone : we come at the beach to rest, to lie, without paying a real attention to the others.
As a painter, I have worked many years on this subject, which slowly moved in a balance from figuration to abstraction, even related to body. In painting, when the subject is close to landscape as it was for this work, the anonymity is part of the vision. There is no problem of specific identity. The vision is general – it’s more the form of the body, it’s position, it’s place in the composition, rather than the specific identity of this body, that had interested me, without thinking of the question of anonymity.

With photography, I had to think in advance this question. I was not interested by identity of people. If in painting you choose what you trace in the frame, in photography, everything thing taken is in the rectangle.
At “Paris Plage”, in the heart of the capital, in an urban landscape, the beach is built like a scene – a scene near the Seine - where come two categories of amateurs : those which come to bronze or to slacken – those which come to walk and enjoy the various activities ….of which the exposure of the others is also an element.
How to look without really looking at, observing while being constrained to observe.

My photographic gesture tried to restore the game of it, with the embarrassment and the difficulty in seeing instantaneously without being indiscreet.

You can create multiple entries, and pay for them at the same time.
Just go to your History, and select multiple entries that you would like to pay for.