A tiny black and white photo is pinned to the entrance to the exhibition.
This 9.5 × 6 cm gelatin silver print, from 1956, is the first by Paolo Roversi.
He is 9 years old and draws the portrait of Maria, his older sister, who is going to the ball in her new princess dress.
“
This elegance which marks a moment that is at once solemn, affectionate and joyful, will be the common thread of Paolo Roversi's work,
” analyzes Sylvie Lécallier, curator of this first Parisian museum monograph offered by the Palais Galliera to the 76-year-old maestro.
From the dark room at the beginning to the pearl gray picture rails at the end, the exhibition frees itself from any chronology and favors a poetic dive into its universe.
The first wall of Polaroid - naked faces like the ecstasies of sacred painting - clearly demonstrates the artist that this fashion photographer is.
Appellation he claims.
“
Unlike many of my colleagues who have this “fashion” complex, I don’t find it pejorative at all.
On the contrary, it is a noble discipline because we are the photographers of the joy of living, of elegance, of well-being, of creativity, of imagination, of daydreaming.
We are always pitted against war photographers.
We are the photographers of peace
,” tells us this native of Ravenna, city on the Adriatic in the north-east of Italy, “
but I am Neapolitan in spirit.
For me, life should be joyful
.”
“Since his very first print, Paolo has kept everything, even the failed photos”
Sylvie Lécallier, curator of the exhibition at the Palais Galliera
This exhibition project started before Covid.
The long period induced by the pandemic was profitable for it.
Photo memory of the Palais Galliera, Sylvie Lécallier spent months looking at the thousands of photos from the photographer's archives in her famous Studio Luce, near Parc Montsouris in Paris.
“
Since his very first print, Paolo has kept everything, even the failed photos
,” she notes.
"
For what ?
Because I don't like to throw away… Over time, we change our point of view on an image.
For example, this Polaroid of the “Red Hand”
(Audrey Marnay in Comme des Garçons, 1997)
that I found to be a complete failure when I did the peeling
(peeling off the gelatin).
Ten years later, I rediscovered it and realized that it was the most beautiful of the series.
I like to let myself be exploited by chance, by destiny, I like images that arise by accident.
»
Lida and Alexandra, Alberta Ferretti, Paris, 1998 Paolo Roversi
No label, few room texts and just a supporting booklet for this visit which focuses on the direct emotion of the spectator.
“
We wanted him to be able to look at the images for what they are, to stop, to stop for a long time, not to think who this model is, who this designer is, to move on immediately to something else.
In an era overwhelmed by the images that we scroll through on a phone, let the viewer take the time to contemplate.
We wanted to give back a place to the materiality of images with these Polaroids, this almost magical object, small, shiny…
” underlines the curator, erudite and sensitive.
Paolo Roversi adds: “
And not like all these images that come to hand, scroll across the screen, and which have no smell, no presence.
»
Out of the thousands of archival documents, they chose 120: omnipresent beauty which leaves the public silent, direct gaze as with August Sander, use of color by a painter like Matisse, and by a photographer like William Eggleston.
“
We were guided by its relationship to light which reveals forms.
The duality between the light of the studio, the windows of which he opens wide, the artificial light of a torch, which he uses like a paintbrush, the darkness which brings back memories of his childhood bedroom where the light passed through the blinds during the nap and made everything mysterious
, explains the commissioner.
It was also necessary to underline the constants which mark his style: the work in the room, the work in the studio, the Polaroid of course, the long pauses, and his relationship as an artist with the creators and the models.
»
Molly in Chanel for
Vogue Italia,
Paris, 2015 Paolo Roversi
Like the poster of the exhibition which sits on the metro platforms (the portrait of Molly Bair in a Chanel couture dress from 2015 for
Vogue Italia
), Paolo Roversi's touch does not need an explanation to capture the imagination .
No doubt snubbed by the world of culture because of this
wall power
(this power of attraction of a work) which makes it accessible to all, Paolo Roversi suffers from an excess of beauty.
In contemporary art as in fashion, this criterion is considered obsolete, even minor.
“Beauty is a mystery
,” he tells us.
I try to reveal it every time I work, but never completely.
I try to get closer without really touching it.
May it remain an untouchable mystery.
I like to float, vaguely, about my work.
»
He doesn't like to put beauty into words, nor does he like to define or analyze himself.
“
Style is not a logical or arithmetic thing.
It has nothing to do with technique, using a Polaroid or a certain type of light.
The style of an artist is his soul which is revealed when he expresses himself
.
»
Being an Italian in France was like living on a desert island
Paolo Roversi
This exhibition celebrates fifty years of career in Paris.
“
Being an Italian in France was like living on a desert island, having your own world in relation to the rest of the world.
I arrived here as a reporter in 1973. I made friends who worked in fashion, who educated me and introduced me to magazines
, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar
, and with them, Helmut Newton, Guy Bourdin, Erwin Blumenfeld, Richard Avedon, Irving Penn… I liked this environment which offered a lot of freedom and room for creative photography.
Today, things have changed a lot, there are more constraints, less budget, it is more difficult to preserve one's freedom
.
»
If, in half a century, all the designers have paraded in front of his lens, his great fashion accomplices share this thirst for radical freedom, such as the Japanese Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons.
“
I met Rei during her first fashion show at the Hôtel de Crillon in Paris in the early 1980s. Our relationship enriched me so much, her work is completely brilliant.
She has always stimulated me in my photographic research, especially when I experimented with flashlight lighting.
» For the spring-summer 1997 campaign for Comme des Garçons, he used it as a luminous pencil, thus playing on the density and contrasts of colors, on the dynamics of volumes.
“
The creators are the composers who write the score, the models are the musical instruments, and the photographer is the interpreter
,” he likes to repeat over the years.
Audrey Marnay in Comme des Garçons, Paris, 1996 Paolo Roversi
For him, who always works in music, the subject is the center of the world, as with August Sander and Nadar, his first great masters.
“
With a model, a sort of photographic friendship is established, of reciprocal esteem which gives more freedom, which allows one to go further.
There are no longer these hesitations, this shyness which slows down creativity.
I have a lot of respect for great models who, through their humanity, embody women.
They don't just pose with a smile and a more or less interesting position in front of the lens.
They are artists capable, without a script, storyboard or decor, of filling with a look and a gesture an entire scene, that of the empty studio
,” he says, in front of the portraits of Natalia Vodianova (2003 ), which seems to emerge from the dawn of time.
“
More than very beautiful eyes, she has an interesting, deep, intense, sensual look.
Intriguing like her.
»
This gentle and courteous man claims simplicity as his main quality, and nostalgia as his main fault.
When he was young, he read Sartre, Camus and the existentialists.
When he reached maturity, he discovered Proust.
“
Paolo’s humanity and kindness, which are not so widespread in the world of art and fashion, bring authenticity to his portraits,”
testifies Sylvie Lécallier.
There is no gap between his images, his archives, my research, and the person in front of me
.
»
“Paolo Roversi” until July 14, 2024, at the Palais Galliera, 10, Avenue Pierre Ier de Serbia, Paris 16th.