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the oceanfront, pension Almayer, "resting on the ledge of the world's ultimate" cross seven characters in strange and romantic destiny, seven castaways life trying to pick up the pieces of their lives. But their stay is upset by the memory of an amazing wreck of a bloody century and derives from a raft. And always, lamer, capricious and compelling ... With a breathtaking mastery Alessandro Baricco gives us both a suspense novel, a book of adventure, a philosophical meditation and a poem in prose.
"Sand in the eye, between the foothills and the sea - the sea - in the cold air of an afternoon near completion and blessed by the wind always blows from the north.
beach. And sea
This might be perfection - divine image for one eye - the world is there and ready, silent existence of land and water, accurate and complete work, truth - truth - but once again it's the little grain of saving the man who just stop the mechanism of this paradise, which is foolish enough in itself to suspend the general apparatus inexorable truth, nothing, but standing there in the sand, imperceptible tear in the surface of the holy icon exception raised on the tiny perfection of unlimited range. To see him from afar, this is hardly a dark point in the middle of nothingness, the nothingness of a man and an easel.
The bridge is anchored by thin strings to four stones set in sand. It oscillates almost imperceptibly in the wind that always blows from the north. The man wearing waders and a large fisherman's jacket. He is standing, facing the sea, running between his fingers a fine brush. On the easel, a canvas.
It is like a sentinel - this is that we must understand - drawn there to defend this portion of the world against the silent invasion of perfection, that tiny crack apart the spectacular staging of being. Because there is always the case, the glimmer of a man enough to hurt the rest of what was to become a finger truth, and becomes immediately pending question and, for the simple and infinite power This man is window, skylight, through which slot rush back torrents of stories, vast repertoire of what could be endless tear, injury wonderful path trodden by thousands of steps where nothing can be true but everything will - as are precisely not the woman who, wrapped in a purple coat, his head covered, as slowly the beach, along the waves of the sea, and to strike from right to left now fled the perfection of the great table, nibbling the distance that separates man and his easel up being only a few paces from him, then next door, where nothing is stopping - and without saying a word, look.
The man did not even turn around. It continues to set the sea Silence. From time to time he dips the brush in a cup of copper traces on the canvas a few light strokes. The bristles of the brush left behind the shadow of a shade paler than the very dry wind immediately by reducing the whiteness before. Water. In the cup of copper, it does have that water. And on the web, nothing. Nothing that could see .
Breath as always the north wind, and the woman tightens her purple coat.
- Plasson, that's for days and days you work here. Why
so take it with you all these colors if you do not have the courage to use it?
The question seems to wake him. She came up to him. He turns to look at the face of the woman. And when he speaks not to respond.
- Please, do not move, "he said.
Then he approaches the brush of the woman's face, hesitates a moment, put him on the lips and slowly slid from one corner to another in the mouth. The bristles are tinged with crimson. He watches them, just soak them in water, and looked up toward the sea on the lips of women remains a shadow of a flavor that requires him to "think of seawater, this man painted with sea water - and it is a thought that makes one shudder.
long time now it has returned, and again measure the huge range of mathematical rosary of his steps, when the wind passes over the canvas to dry a burst of light pink, nude sailing in white. One could spend hours watching the sea and the sky, and everything is there, but we do not find anything that color. Nothing that can see .
tide in these regions, arrived before darkness falls. Just before. Water surrounds the man and his easel, she takes them, gently but accurately, they remain there, and the other one, impassive, like a miniature island, or a wreck with two heads, Plasson, the painter .
Each evening a small boat picks him up, shortly before bedtime the sun, when the water already it reaches the heart. It was he who wants it that way. He climbs into the small boat, load up his easel there and the rest, and let reduce.
The Sentinel goes. His duty and done. Danger rejected. In setting off the icon, once again, failed to become sacred. All because of this man and his brushes. And now he's gone, there is no enough time. Darkness suspends all. There is nothing that can, in the darkness, become true .
Alessandro Baricco, Ocean Sea, Gallimard, collection Folio, pages 13-16.
The "books of photographs and words, through their play with "The device of truth" (p. 12) in particular, are moving the line between reality and fiction and the border between the genders. Further, they urge that thought necessarily transdisciplinary approach of this group, like other works on the photo-literature, may well be to consolidate the margins of some disciplines to form a new discipline. We thus find in Books of photographs and words the difficulties inherent in this field, such as classification of hybrid objects or opening to the contemporary.
Some articles focus to a work, as Fire Valere Novarina and Thérèse Joly (1994), analyzed by Jean-Pierre Montier and Story of Hers (1983), studied by Jan Baetens and Mike Bleyen, or a set of works: novels, photo Mary-Françoise and Benoît Peeters Plissart (Alexandra Koeniguer) or publications by Joseph Kosuth (Jacinto Lageira). Other articles consider the most important corpus: texts and autobiographical photographic Veronica Montémont, large corpus of novels associated with the photo for Chloe Conant and John Arrouye - to Orfa Armand Sylvestre (1901) to more contemporary works by Christian Bobin, Mary or Marie Ndiaye Desplechin - text and pictures to dream Christine Buignet, conceptual artists' books and books for Jerome Dupee photographers Christophe Viart. The last two studies look at sets like the most unexpected images that Boris calendars Eizykman provides a historical overview and picture books to accompany some LPs Post Punk, presented by Paul Edwards.
The main problem with this field of research lies in the heterogeneity of its objects. "Iconotext" to Veronica Montémont (p. 40) "photo-text" for Paul Edwards (p. 240), "Business iconico-text 'for John Arrouye (p. 54)," works phototextuelles "Chloe Conant (p. 76): the difficulty in finding a permanent name for these objects is a sign of unease, until about literary or even artistic status of these "books of photographs and words."
Some papers emphasize particularly on the multitude of objects. Jean Arrouye addresses eg head on the issue of classification by categorizing books according to the different functions of Photography - "the illustration of detail" in the early or "allegory" - and according to its statute, the semiotic model, in the case of Our Antefix Denis Roche, the documentary or "reserve fiction "through the" hatchery feelings "in The Use of Photography from Annie Ernaux and Marc Marie (p. 71). Taking into account economic constraints in the artistic choices, Chloe Conant remarks about it that each book introduces a "new device" (p. 75) and distinguished features illustrative of legend devices or comment, or more complex arrangements such as the notebook.
It appears from these studies that the "book of photographs and words" creates a game, that is to say, a free space between the two mediums. Artists and writers are playing with this space of indeterminacy between reality and fiction, "says Veronica Montémont (p. 39). The image "opens a new horizon to the text" (Buignet, p. 110), it can be a "clutch of memory and fiction ..." (Arrouye, p. 57) and, finally, it enables the works to constraints or experimental, books profoundly " playful "(Conant, p. 76 and p. 90). In the texts of "musicians photographers" as Philippe Fichot and John Foxx, which he analyzes in detail the "poetic any photographic" (p. 245), Paul Edwards locates a "preview", that is to say a "vision indoor photography to come "(p. 246). Whatever its function, this game is a space of freedom, instead of a "co-creation", a term that incorporates Montémont Véronique François Soulages (p. 38), which involves the reader, a true "co-producer of the work "in artists' books Lawrence Weiner, Jochen Gerz and Robert Barry Dupee according to Jerome (p. 172).
Most of the work published here highlight the contact points or deep entanglement between literary and artistic production. Along with the rising power of images, beyond the question of illustration, one finds in literature, Jerome Dupee notes the growing presence of text in art since the 1960s.
we understand how close to the photographic image in literature and book the space, but also in analytical methods. By comparing the works of Lothar Baumgarten, Hamish Fulton and Sophie Ristelhueber Christophe Viart considering the "book as an exhibition space" (p. 196) through the tools of semiotics and literary legacy assumed through Mallarme or Valery. And it is in sociological terms Alexandra Koeniguer questions the transformation of an object of popular literature in "New Roman-photo" (p. 216) that multiplies housing abyss and questions about the medium.
books of photographs and words insight into developing and the historical context of these forms in vogue today. It seems necessary to interpret the success as does Veronica Montémont who works for the Legendre and Bonnetto, Sophie Calle and Christian Boltanski are not only egotistical games or the result of the subversion of the autobiographical genre (p. 49 ), but genuine forms of fictional inventions. This group shows that the picture is a "new participant in the literary game (Arrouye, p. 70) and it does not confine itself to the reality effects. These hybrid objects, combining text and photographs, create, even in their indeterminacy, "a new art show and tell "(Arrouye, p. 71). In line with the work of Paul Edwards, books of photographs and words thus illuminates the role of photography in our imaginations.
Here via the summary, the issues addressed in this book:
General Introduction: The Book of photographs and words: an area of interference and interference by Daniele Meaux.
- 1. Fire : presence in the world, incandescent speech, Jean-Pierre Montier.
- 2. How to lie and say the truth twice: photography and autobiography, Véronique Montémont.
- 3. A new art of saying and showing, by Jean ARROUY.
- 4. Small arrangements of reality and fiction, by Chloe Conant.
- 5. Hers / Story : a poetic sprawl, by Jan and Mike BAETENS Bleyen.
- 6. Notes on some collections of words and images of dreams, by Christine Buignet.
- 7. The picture as it is stated, by Jacinto Lageira.
- 8. Copresence and co. Uses of photography and text in art books "conceptual", by Jerome DUPEYRAT.
- 9. Exhibition of words and images in space of the book (examples of Lothar Baumgarten, Hamish Fulton and Sophie Ristelhueber) by Christopher ViArt.
- 10. Image described in the image of the written word: the inverse photo-fiction by Alexandra Koeniguer.
- 11. Of unwanted frozen in time schedules, Boris Eizykman.
- 12. The photo-illustrated book in deluxe editions of the Post Punk music, by Paul Edwards.
little known texts by Lamartine, Gautier, Renan, Gourmont, etc.. Philippe Ortel reads scripts famous Hugo, Baudelaire or Zola from the new image. It's also a way for him to revisit "outsider" from the photograph, many familiar concepts in literary criticism. In turn, the notion of model, the relationship between representation and scene creation, lyricism and technical thought, poem in prose and industries of the image, visual realism and realism literary cliche verbal and visual cliche. More broadly, The book shows how the photographic device becomes, for writers, an imaginary structure they use to think "photographic" art, society and the modern man.
On the question of "aesthetic value" of interest as much philosophy as the art of literary criticism, it is approached from the exemplary case of photogenic, yet little explored notion central to the arts.
Philippe Ortel defines the conditions of photographic aesthetics in the nineteenth century and locates the record in competitive practices, pictorial and literary.
The full text of a report of this book by Nicole Edelman in History Review of the nineteenth century , No. 24, 2002, pages 197-200:
" The emergence of the daguerreotype (1839) and then the photograph is, according to Philippe Ortel, a major caesura in modern history whose cultural impact has yet been measured until later in the late twentieth e century. The invention of Niepce and Daguerre creates a new historical and cultural landmark, it influences painters and writers. The study of the effects of photography on these has yet been long neglected, literature in the era of photography. Investigation of an invisible revolution Philippe Ortel, a lecturer in literature at the University of Toulouse Le Mirail, from a revised and completed thesis, supported under the direction of Philippe Hamon in 1996, seeks to fill this gap. To do this, the author travels the XIX th century, where the 1820 triumph with panoramas préphotographique aesthetics of the "view" to Proust whose work exceeds the century, but plays the role of transition as it integrates into his world of new images as the cinematographer.
In an introduction, Philippe Ortel questions the nature of the invention of photography and offers historical and cultural reasons for the long shelved the analysis of the relationship between text and images. In the nineteenth e century photography is increasing and is spreading widely, gradually losing its "status signal to reach the universe of dumb things" it becomes a useful object recognition but not aesthetics. Ubiquitous in everyday life, it is not for the Beautiful. For these reasons in addition to methodological difficulties: the text that gives and see that the image mean, is not false, but simplistic. The author then circumvents this obstacle by placing himself in the act of reading. "Reading a text is change the signs written in mental world where ideas and images combine in varying proportions. Speaking of visual effects in this case thus is not only a metaphor." As for the image, to understand, this is both the overall view but also the segment. Finally, texts and images are joined in a share of aesthetic pleasures, to information, they dream, they preserve the memory and link beings. The question then to address a central question of the book, namely "how literary works of the nineteenth e century have had to redefine their contents and rules under the pressure of photography."
Philippe Ortel considers necessary to recall what photography changed modes of production, distribution and reception of images. First, automation photography profoundly changed the "role of the hand in the implementation of images" setting of the first devices promotes the art of view and it is only the Kodak (1888) that s. the next becomes feasible. Reproducton the mass of photographs is another factor of change, the photographic image invades the space of the XIX th century, from the daguerreotype - we know the famous lithograph Maurisset, entitled, The daguerréotypomanie, edited in 1839 or that of Daumier, Nadar representative operating from his balloon (1862). There runoff trials, ubiquity of the photographic image that surrounds the literature and multiplying forms of interaction that remain elusive, however. Photography and has no well-defined aesthetic periods, at least before the Pictorialism (circa 1900), such as painting and literature. She collaborates with some writers. So when Maxime du Camp publishes Egypt, Nubia, Palestine and Syria in 1852, Flaubert, though traveling companion, is not involved in anything this album, and his comments on this photographic activity are ironic.
face the gap between photography and the ubiquity of discretion "evidence showing its presence" in the literature, Philippe Ortel mark what he calls an "unspoken model" which specifies the contours. The definition is possible because "the arts of graph were forced to borrow to photography some of its features, and simultaneously define their own territory within the visual cropping it imposed on them."
The author not only defines the idea of the model around the notion of "code" (Barthes), but about "all the means and procedures techniques constitutifs de la pratique destinée à jouer ce rôle". Il prend alors en compte trois niveaux de transposition, et tout d'abord "la scène de création (ou d'énonciation)", très présente dans les œuvres littéraires. "Comparer les pratiques, ce sera donc dégager une praxéologie commune à l'opérateur muni de la chambre noire et à l'écrivain tel qu'il se perçoit et figure son activité à travers ses textes". Puis le cadrage de la réalité constitue un deuxième niveau. Enfin ce cadrage étant conditionné par des médiations cognitives capables d'opérer la sélection, le troisième niveau se place autour of "interpreting", which means the mediation between the artist and reality. "Seeing Things" photographically "it will find in the outside world, configurations near the device, not missing the nature of black boxes (caves and glades, buildings), reflectors (lakes, floors, walls) and traces (fingerprints ...) ".
Around these three levels - scene of utterance context and interpreting - Philippe Ortel organizes his book. The scene creation is specifically linked to the Romantic period which reflects the role of the artist in the world the concept of framing is called by the rather realistic movement, and finally the literature of the 1880s, interest in the human psyche is similar to the view camera, which becomes "a kind of universal interpretation to describe the man and his faculties. "
Literature in the Age of Photography consists of four parts and broken down into eleven chapters. "A new stage of creation," as the first part has three chapters that compare the invention and practice of photography set design developed by the poets Romantic. The second part entitled "Photography and Representation" centers around a crisis of representation that fits around the arts of this crisis, namely photography and prose poems, inventors of a system utterance nine. The four chapters of Part Three - "The photographic model" - instead of considering the "view" and the light in the realistic aesthetic of the 1830s. Hugo, Balzac, Flaubert, Zola find a place. Finally, "Photography and Modernity", last section, explores the profound impact of photography on the attitudes and values, instead of the medium in social crisis in which the writers have been particularly sensitive. The new place in the darkroom and product structure, so the vision of society and changes the design of modern man, so the picture-card, invented by Disdéri (1854), offers a self-image that transforms man nineteenth e century. And, beyond the significance of photogenic and have questioned its aesthetic value.
Reading the book by Philippe Ortel is not easily accessible to the historian, who still has not mastered the many concepts of literary criticism which the author is of course that revisits the same purpose and pleasure. However Literature in the Age of Photography is an "investigation" as its subtitle indicates that takes us through little-known texts as well as major works of writers of the nineteenth th century . The book uncovers the complex relationships between photography and literature, opens on understanding the relationship between literature and communication and more broadly, "shows how the photographic device becomes a structure in the writers imagination they use to think" photographically " art, society and the modern man. "
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