80+80, PHOTO_GRAPHISME

Two galleries: a photo agency for one (VU') and a graphic design agency for the other (Anatome, specialising in political and institutional communication), they have decided to celebrate VU''s 20th anniversary in their own way by inviting 160 creators from all over the world (photographers and graphic designers) to compare their experiences and views in pairs created by drawing lots.
United "by force" to the work of a photographer they did not necessarily know, confronted with a creative universe already expressed, the graphic designers reacted in many ways. "Some of them superimposed their visual codes or typo_graphic codes on the photo_graphic image," explain Marie-Anne Couvreu, artistic director of the Galerie Anatome, and Christian Caujolle, artistic director of the agency and the Galerie VU', in one voice. "Others have totally revisited it and formally restructured it. Others, finally, have added meaning, sometimes deliberately transgressively." And as Christian Caujolle points out, in the flood of images that drench us daily, we were - alas - quick to speak of visuals, encompassing in a single word all the techniques that presided over their creation. "That's why I think it's essential to point out that 80+80 brings together photographers and graphic designers to produce posters. Not visuals."

Note that the list of guinea pigs in this experiment is pleasantly prestigious. So look at the graphic designers who have embarked on this adventure: Majid Abbasi, Philippe Apeloig, Ruedi Baur, Michel Bouvet, Change is Good, Château-Rouge, deValence, Sébastien Courtois, Pascal Colrat, H5, Ich & Kar, Alexander Gelman, NTE, Typomagical, Cyan, Malte Martin, Niklaus Troxler, Jeanne Verdoux, Alex Singer, Etienne Robial, Vincent Perrottet, Alain Le Quernec... And this is just a small sample! On the photographers' side, it's not bad either... Rip Hopkins, Denis Darzacq, Gérard Rondeau, Serge Picard, Isabel Muñoz...
Léonor de Bailliencourt - 06/2005