It's true what they say, "The best things in life are free!" The proof was in the pudding today at the Hotel de Ville. Madame M proposed we visit the Izis exhibition, showing gratuite. I must confess, I had no knowledge of this artist before today, and was glad to expand my horizons. Born Izraelis Bidermanas, he came of age during the Nazi occupation of France, joined the Resistance, and was known to his comrades simply as "Izis". He had a lifelong love for the art of photography, and many of his most stirring portraits are of his fellow freedom fighters. A Humanist, Izis had an eye for capturing the emotion of the moment-pure, unposed, completely honest. After the war he worked as a staff photographer for Paris Match, the french equivilant to Life magazine, and captured the images of many luminaries including Colette and Chagal. But his most interesting work is spontaneous. He somehow captured the sad beauty of a homeless man sleeping in the street, the innocence of childhood, the sweet joy of a couple long married riding a merry-go-round. Not at all famous as his contemporary Robert Doiseneau, his body of work is nonetheless extraordinary, moving, and rich. Showing through the 29th of May, it is an exhibition not to be missed!
About the Izis exhibition, I want to precise some points I've read on the book, before you write it on your blog : Izis took this name during the German Occupation, but he was never committed in the Resistance. As a jewish, he just tried to escape from persecution and fled with his family from Paris to Limoges where they were all hidden by generous people. Through this wanderings from a hiding place to another, he continued his job of photographer and had the opportunity to meet the Resistance fighters. He proposed to photograph them and ... they arrived clean, well shaved and dressed with a formal costume !
ReplyDeleteSo he asked them to come back 3 days later with their usual beard, old clothes and their gun and then he composed each photo ! It is much less romantic and realistic that what we had imagined, but we must recognize that the result is convincing, anyway.