She says all this photo. Jane Birkin crunching a love apple, with her clear look that pierces us. Her candor and her sex appeal combined in a single shot. A myth: The Birkin imprint. Mutineer, playful, charismatic but also mysterious, even melancholic. They are all there the facets of the singer immortalized by two cadors of photography, her brother Andrew Birkin, and Tony Frank, in a new exhibition at the Galerie de l'Instant. Memories of an era to contemplate until March 1.
With him necessarily. Her phlegm, her peculiar face. Serge Gainsbourg, here they are both around a baby bottle wondering how to fill it next to an ashtray or laughing out loud. A normal couple, or almost. “They were simple. The photographers then rubbed shoulders with the stars. We were talking about painters, literature. So that sometimes we realized that we hadn't worked on leaving them, ”says Tony Frank, contemplating with an amused eye a picture where he himself appears among the guests.
He was then 24 years old, at "Régine", the queen of Parisian nights, where the couple had lunch, with Jane frozen in a childish smile. "The face I have on it," whispers Tony Frank, skeptical of discovering his hair in disarray at the end of the table. A meal he has not forgotten. It was the first time he had seen her. “They have been together for six months. I thought she was really sexy, he breathes. Afterwards, we played a game of chess. Me and my assistant against Andrew and Serge, with a bottle of Calva made by the local distiller. "
Fragment of those years when he drank cheerfully with Johnny, Polnareff, Jacques Dutronc… “In the evening, I brought them back by car. I don't know how I did it, but at that time, we weren't blowing into the ball, "laughs the author of the" kiss ", a moment of tenderness stolen between the two lovers. The beginning of a relationship, that of a life.
Another frame too, magnetizes. The famous Melody Nelson cover, where she poses on a blue background, with her fetish "Munkey", the little stuffed monkey who never left her, hiding her naked torso here. And a story. "Serge was late, she was worried. In fact, he was gone to buy the wig she wears. When he arrived, he tried it himself to relax it. Meanwhile, Jane put two touches of blush on her cheeks. “The stars wore makeup alone. An image, now historic. “With Charlotte already on the picture… Jane was 3 months pregnant, hence her pants open. "
Newsletter Going out in the Paris region
Every Friday, the news of your outings seen by Le ParisienI'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to allow you to receive our news and commercial offers. Find out more
Next to it is Jane B again ... headless. "She was spinning on her stool. I captured this moment for fun. I never thought it would end in an exhibition, ”he smiles inexhaustibly on the duo, the fruit of 15 years of work.
And a collaboration. “Once, Serge came to see me in a blazing gestapo for his album Rock around the bunker. Everyone knew he was Jewish. In the end, he didn't use it. I was so shy that I never dared to ask him why, says the artist. He often came up with ideas like that. "
Not Jane. "She came as she was. »Natural. Ingenuous but sensual. As in this forest near Rambouillet, your eyes vague for the magazine Mademoiselle age tender, or as a bride, hanging on Serge's arm.
Masterpieces, sometimes brought out of the cupboard. "I didn't remember those anymore," Tony says in front of the machine gunner Jane with a device. “The gallery manager found them on the contact sheets, they were still in the laboratory. As we leave, we contemplate the twig in white boots for the last time, with of course his plush. A gift won by her uncle at a fun fair when she was little. " Munkey landed in Serge's coffin. "
"Jane B", at the Galerie de l'Instant, 46, rue de Poitou (III). From 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday. 2:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Sunday and 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday. Free entry. Photo from 500 €
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/SYNEMXWJOBDHVIJMLL3S53WIAM.jpg)
