Exhibitions
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BAUME & MERCIER presents a world-premiere preview of the work of GERARD RANCINAN - CAROLINE GAUDRIAULT through “The Photographer” exhibit-installation on the Palais de Tokyo Mezzanine in Paris an exceptional evening with Reza, James Nachtwey, David Burnett, Elliott Erwitt,… Paris, Thursday November 13, 2008. Baume & Mercier CEO Michel Nieto, Caroline Gaudriault and Gérard Rancinan had the very great pleasure of unveiling “The Photographer” on the Palais de Tokyo Mezzanine in Paris at a world premier preview.
The Project and Baume & Mercier’s Involvement in Photography A few years ago, as Baume & Mercier was looking for a true area of expression, photography naturally suggested itself by virtue of its identical heritage based on strong values of proximity, timelessness, memory, technology, quality, expertise, universality and accessibility. After all, does not photography also measure passing time, by stopping it?
Always in tune with its times, Baume & Mercier intuitively turned to what is now considered a major art of the 21st century. So for several years now, Baume & Mercier has endeavored to work alongside the most important institutions and festivals, and the most talented photographers, all over the world. From PhotoEspaña in Madrid to the Magnum agency in New York and Fotofest in Houston; from the Asian Civilization Museum in Singapore to the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation in Paris; and from FotoGrafia in Rome to the Westlich Gallery in Vienna and the Young Gallery in Brussels, Baume & Mercier displays its total and global involvement in the world of photography. With “The Photographer,” Baume & Mercier reaffirms its commitment to photography and does a bit more championing of its position as a contemporary watchmaker curious to capture the memory of today and tomorrow. The Swiss watchmaking company has no desire to remain an observer; rather, it wants to participate in a world that resembles its own, by becoming the “originator, producer and co-director” of a photography project. That is why it has joined forces with Caroline Gaudriault and Gérard Rancinan to dream up a voyage interspersed with encounters with the living masters of contemporary photography* at various stops around the world. It is a tribute to the greatest witnesses of our times. Yet Baume & Mercier did not micromanage Gérard Rancinan’s and Caroline Gaudriault’s creative choices at all. CEO Michel Nieto explains “the only requirements we set for them were to immortalize some contemporary photographers and to successfully retranscribe their initial vision of the world.” These famous photographers are masters of the art of waiting for the critical moment, of creating a distinctive photographic ambience or world of their own. This time, they find themselves alone in front of the lens, with no artifice, at the very heart of their private life. They have all played the game and made an effort so that we can get a glimpse of their world through a portrait.
The Style of Gérard Rancinan and Caroline Gaudriault Gérard Rancinan is a famous photographer who exhibits in the world’s greatest galleries and museums, contributes to major magazines (Paris Match, Photo, Life Magazine, and others) and is well accustomed to photographing major figures (religious figures, powerful leaders and contemporary artists). He has made the portraits of his counterparts on silver film using a Hasselblad. In this artistic work, he has explored and brought together photographers of all backgrounds, styles and leanings who, without him, would never have had any reason to meet. Through this exhibit, Gérard Rancinan pays tribute to his brothers in the art and tries to answer a question that has haunted him for a number of years: Who is the Photographer? Perhaps he is the one who allows the other to keep his eyes open.
The Collaboration between Baume & Mercier, Gérard Rancinan and Caroline Gaudriault Longtime friends Baume & Mercier, Gérard Rancinan and Caroline Gaudriault have already worked together on joint projects such as “Entre-Temps,” for which about twenty well-known figures (athletes, artists, NGO founders, famous doctors, etc.) reflected on the abstract notion of time. A high-level sprinter and a heart surgeon each have their own different ideas of it.
The Exhibit Making reference to the book, the Palais de Tokyo’s Mezzanine has been transformed into a maze, a walk right through the inside of a print shop in the process of making the book. Each photograph’s world is recreated on large, sometimes unfinished pages that float in the air as they dry. Some of the photographs from the book, printed in large format (1.70 x 1.50 m), are marked up, underlined, stained and printed to give visitors the impression of seeing the pages of an imaginary book in preparation.
The Book and Its Concept The concept was not meant as a catalogue of portraits or a listing of the world’s “best” photographers; the intent was rather to go and meet some of them, to invite them to come in front of the lens and speak. The book gives some poignant true-life anecdotes that are food for thought going well beyond the photographic act; it evokes the photographer’s lot and place, to finally end with the question “What makes someone become a photographer?” That is the question that filters all through the book, in each portrait by Rancinan, in each text by Caroline Gaudriault. Their answers echo and supplement each other, wherein lies all the interest. On this point, Caroline explains “that a photographer is never a photographer by chance, or because of an idea, no matter how good it may be. If someone becomes a photographer, it is because he has no choice. In any case, the ones we met did not have one. Rather than take up arms, Reza chose photography to bear witness. The same is true of Kratochvil, or Araki, for whom photography is an outlet after his wife’s death.”
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