For its twelfth edition, Portrait(s) is changing its face. While continuing its exploration of a unique photographic genre, the photographic event is evolving in its exhibition format. Building on the success of the last edition, which welcomed nearly 47,700 visitors, Portrait(s) is now making the Grand Établissement thermal de Vichy, an emblematic place in the city, its main setting. In future editions, the spaces of the Grand Établissement thermal will host monographic or collective exhibitions, which will allow an “in-depth” exploration of a work in order to enter the world of photographers and reveal all its riches.
During this first monographic exhibition, we have the pleasure of honoring one of the greatest contemporary photographers, the British Nadav Kander. Nadav Kander's photographs impose silence and take us into his world made of softness, emotion, fragility, in great subtlety. This exceptional exhibition developed with the artist presents a hundred works from the most emblematic series of his work, unpublished photographs, two films as well as an installation. By exhibiting this masterful work in the spaces of this building classified as a historic monument, the City of Vichy and Portrait(s) have affirmed for twelve years their desire to support and defend photography.
Portrait(s) continues to support creation by pursuing its policy of photographic commissions with four residencies carried out this year. Echoing the sporting dimension of Vichy and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games – marked by the passage of the Olympic flame through its territory – two residencies on the theme of sport were led by Arielle Bobb-Willis , a young emerging American photographer, and Christophe Darbelet , a photographer based in Vichy.
- Arielle Bobb-Willis brought to light a cast of twenty-five professional, semi-professional and disabled athletes to create, with an offbeat approach tinged with humor, dynamic and colorful images. This residency was produced with the support of C inq Étoiles Productions.
- Christophe Darbelet has taken to the local roads to work on the region's football clubs. He delivers a gallery of portraits and landscapes, creating a metaphorical bridge between the player and the environment.
The other two residencies were led by Christophe Acker, who made a series of portraits and a film about the students of Cavilam, a school that has specialized in teaching the French language for sixty years. He gives students a voice on the sound of our language. And Patrick Tourneboeuf worked on the architectural splendors of Vichy and Baden-Baden in Germany, two spa towns listed as UNESCO World Heritage sites, in order to sketch a mirror portrait of the great spa towns of Europe. These photographic commissions will be presented outdoors, along the banks of the Allier, on Place Saint-Louis, on the Simone-Veil forecourt and on the façade of the Pôle Universitaire: an open-air photographic stroll.
Transmission: Portrait(s)'s educational projects are back with La voix du regard, carte blanche to Brigitte Patient, who offers the analysis of a photograph by Nelli Palomäki in a video and sound montage; Des mots pour voir with the support of Neuflize OBC which this year presents works by Laura Henno ; and Portrait(s) s'invite à l'école, which every year renews its actions of initiation to photography in schools.
The Rendez-vous photographique invites you once again to celebrate culture and support creation and freedom of expression. We are happy to see you again for this twelfth edition. We welcome you to Vichy!
