QUAI DE LA PHOTO LA SEINE, LA SEINE
What could be a better venue for a photo exhibition tracing the history of Paris’ iconic river than a custom designed, permanently docked barge hosting a gallery, photo bookstore, bar, plus indoor and outdoor restaurant spaces on the banks of the Seine?
© Judith Bluysen
Two current exhibits:
RIVE DROITE, RIVE GAUCHE – Agence Roger-Viollet
Running through September 8 and open daily, the exhibit La Seine, La Seine examines two distinct lives of the river. The first segment, Rive Droite, Rive Gauche, displayed in the interior gallery, is comprised of 80 archival photographs from the mid-19th century through the 1960’s, documenting the commercial, working, and social lives of the laborers whose livelihoods depended upon the river. The Seine was a major artery that enabled French wines and other merchandise to be warehoused and shipped worldwide, while its banks provided outdoor workspaces for the messy organic trades: wigmakers and animal groomers, sheep shearers, mattress makers, and fresh milk merchants.
© Roger-Viollet
A popular rendez-vous on Sundays and holidays, the river drew families: strollers, picnickers, and bathers as well as collectors visiting the booksellers and curiosity merchants along the quai. During the years preceding the L’Exposition Universelle, the Paris World’s Fair, which drew 51 million visitors (no, this is not a typo!) to Paris in 1900, tunnels and viaducts were constructed linking the Left and Right Banks to enable Metro circulation; train stations were modifed and the Gare d’Orsay (then known as the Gare d’Orleans) was built. The Eiffel Tower was raised in a record 2 years [1887-89]. Workmans’ paradise!! While wars and industrialization inevitably changed the face of the Seine, souvenirs of this bustling and vibrant period are now preserved digitally as photographs as well as in physical stone and iron around much of the riverbank.
© Roger-Viollet
The Agency Roger-Viollet was founded in 1938 and contains over 6 million photographs. The collection was donated to the city of Paris in 1985.
© Roger-Viollet
LA SOURCE – Frédéric Stucin
The second part of the exhibit, La Source, is appropriately displayed on outdoor screens along the verge of the Seine, suspended among the terrace tables and visible from the path along the quai. Following the Covid confinement of 2020, French photographer Frédéric Stucin noticed a startling migration of Parisians to greener suburban pastures, a collective “return to the source”. Stucin discovered a village named Source-Seine, 280 km from Paris, the source of the waterway. All along the riverbanks, urban refugees were constructing fresh lives in the newly inhabited area, working remotely from a coveted “house with garden” or living in campers, joyfully re-establishing relationships with the land nourished by the river. Recording them in their environments, as earlier photographers such as Atget, Leon and Levy, Jacques Boyer and René Jacques captured the river laborers, Stucin set up modern Hollywood-style cinematic lighting effects from an outdoor studio to create an idealized palette of deep rich colors and contrasts.
The photobooks La Source and Rive Droite, Rive Gauche are available from La Comète, the gallery’s floating bookstore located on the barge.
Quai de la Photo opened in June 2023, the child of SPEOS photography school director Pierre-Yves Mahé. The venue is a unique destination in which to enjoy thoughtfully curated related exhibitions of both rising and established photographers. Restaurant tables overlook, on one side of the platform, a marina harboring small historic boats which are available for excursions, and the main gallery below on the other. The restaurant menu is varied, starring seasonal organic French products in a simple but sophisticated international style. From May to October a sheltered outdoor terrace provides a variety of choices for relaxed afternoon or evening drinks or meals, and small tables are scattered throughout the main floor for visitors enjoy a drink or coffee from the bar.
© Judith Bluysen
The gallery is an ideal space for exhibitions, whether vintage images in classic black and white or contemporary color. Until fairly recently, photo exhibits were most often comprised of grouped, black-framed mounted photos on unicolored walls. Since the pixel has gobbled up much of mainstream photography and permits substantially more freedom in size, shape and support, the aesthetics of display have blossomed. Images, or sections of images, can be printed on wallpaper-like sheets to be used as backdrops for groupings, or on translucent materials lit from behind. Small spaces thus transform into environments, immersing the viewer in a specific ambiance created by the curator’s choices of photos.
© Judith Bluysen
A lovely particularity of this exhibit is light entering from both sides of the barge reflects the modern landscape of the Seine on the barges internal glass walls and on the old framed photos, creating a juxtaposition of old and new. On the ground floor, vintage monochrome images printed on both sides of large panels are placed diagonally across from the entrance of the barge, and are pleasingly visible from the middle deck restaurant space, creating “back to the future” glimpse of Paris as visitors and staff move among them.
© Judith Bluysen
Quai de la Photo, 9 Quai de la Gare, 75013 Paris is open daily from May-October, noon to midnight. Winter hours may differ.
Free entry, and guided visits are offered at 12:30, 14:30, 16:30, and 18:30.
© Judith Bluysen
This article about Quai de la Photo is by Judith Bluysen, a relapsed street photographer now shooting in Paris. Check out her website www.judithbluysen.com, or on Instagram @luluparee and her other articles on FUSAC:
- https://fusac.fr/triple-exposure/
- https://fusac.fr/women-war-photographers/
- https://fusac.fr/reconciliation/
- https://fusac.fr/weegee-autopsie-du-spectacle/