François-Marie Banier
True Stories
Istanbul Modern Photograph Gallery
"Who is a photographer? Any high-wire artist without a wire, any conductor without an orchestra, any realistic dreamer with a bit of persistence who, whether confusedly or not, has the feeling, the courage – it only takes a slight movement of the index finger – to stop the world. He blocks it, wedges it, lays it out. For good. Makes it solid. That is where the work of art begins: when it’s over. When the photo has been taken, printed, chosen. Sold, I might say." – François-Marie Banier.
"Photography means power. One of the greatest powers is that of writing History. This is dangerous ground for the honest practitioner. Now I come to a word I would have preferred never to use: responsibility. This time, the witness is the verdict. The penalty is severe: it defies time, gong well beyond those involved in the tragedy and affecting us and our children’s children." – François-Marie Banier.
François-Marie Banier became known as a poet and novelist in the 1960s, but later he shifted focus to play a central role in photography and painting. For Banier the streets are not just places where he takes photographs but at the same time his studio. Camera in hand he impulsively plunges into life, sometimes in the streets of Paris, sometimes in cities in other countries. For him the reality of life is more creative than the created.
His portrait photographs, whether they depict people who are unknown, or artists and other famous figures, are masterpieces of light, expression and graphic balance. His portraits capturing people ranging from Beckett to Nicole Kidman completely expose their natural state. As he clicks the shutter release, everything is not over but instead newly beginning. It may cost Banier years for these photographs to mature and be accepted. He never views photography as capturing a frozen moment.
At the end of the 1980s Banier began writing directly onto the image in seemingly disorganized sentences arranged one after the other or linked together, telling stories that might be dramatic, cheerful or melancholy.
His photographs thereby acquired a completely new appearance and new story. Consequently these photographs are not observed in the ordinary way. Instead they sweep you into them and make you a part of the story. The words both alter the image and lend a completely different dimension of creativity.
Banier began to combine writing, painting and photography in his work. Ink, paint and drawing are the new episodes in moments and stories that he captured in the past.
In Banier’s photographs, as words, paint and images spread over the photograph, syntheses that both conceal and reveal the image emerge as riddles that require solving afresh each time.
François-Marie Banier’s photographs are each works created from life and relating to life, presenting nobility, drama, happiness and unhappiness in a sensitive balance that may be ironic or tragic. Actually these works that express all times are a balance of the relationship between photography,light,writing and pictures. Banier's photographs are 'True Stories' capturing images of a lost moment that will never return or be found again.
Curated by: Engin Ozendes (ESFIAP)
FRANCOIS-MARIE BARNIER
True Stories
Istanbul Modern Photograph Gallery
30 May – 27 August 2006
