Crossed glances
Museum of Photography and Institute for Photography
Crossed glances is the result of a collaboration between the Institut pour la photographie des Hauts-de-France and the Museum of Photography in Charleroi. By browsing the funds of one and the collection of the other, the conservation teams of both institutions created a visual dialogue within the permanent course of the Museum of Photography. Ten focus areas line the rooms, tracing the history of photography from its origins to the contemporary era. They put in dialogue about forty phototypes of the backgrounds of Bettina Rheims, Jean-Louis Schoellkopf and Agnès Varda coming from the Institute with works extracted from the Museum’s collections. The rapprochement of these images, in rotation for some, plays on the thematic, formal or technical aspect. Thus, a contact sheet of dancers in Cuba by Agnès Varda in 1963 echoes the chronophotographies ofAlbert Londe from the 1880s, another is closer to plant motifs of Jacques Meuris ; prints from different series of Bettina Rheims dating from 1987 to 2009 join the rooms of surrealists, portraits and music; Jean-Louis Schoellkopf’s documentary approach from the 1980s to 2015 resonates with the trials ofAugust Sander and that of the Belgian Yves Auquier.
Explanatory cartels accompany this exhibition, opening new reflections on photography, its bicentenary history and its scientific, cultural or artistic axes. They reflect the sharing of knowledge and analysis on these heritage resources and varied photographic practices.
At the initiative of the Museum of Photography in Charleroi, this device enriches the course of its permanent exhibition and enhances the exchanges conducted with its guest partner, the Institute for Photography.
