By Geraldine Piriou *
Some dreams are priceless, the City of Paris has including by offering free exhibition "Izis, Paris dreams" until 29 May at the Town Hall. This is not a retrospective dedicated to the Egyptian goddess almost namesake, but Bidermanas Izrael, a photographer with a modest sensitivity exacerbated dream, and refused to name the artist. If recognized by the profession as one of the most talented photographers humanist, his name remains unknown to the general public. Yet, since 1951, the MoMA in New York selects with Cartier-Bresson, Doisneau, Brassai and Ronis for the exhibition "Five French Photographers." 30 years after his death, Armelle Canitrot and his son, Manuel Bidermanas, himself a photographer, decided by this retrospective, making Izis to what he comes back and invite us to follow in the footsteps of this young Litvak, who decided to escape the misery of his country to join the "Paris of Dreams", home of intellectuals and the Impressionists.
Some dreams give birth in a nightmare. Born in Marijampole in 1911, he was only nineteen when he left his native Lithuania, then under Russian control, to escape anti-Semitic persecution. Arriving in Paris in 1930, is a France devastated by the Great Depression that hosts them. After three years of hard and doing it themselves entrusted with managing a photography studio in the 13 th district. But the war comes and he must flee again, leaving Paris to the Limousin. Immigrant, exile: the stateless this feeling will continue throughout his work, visible watermark on some shots. As a "no man's land of identity.
In the shadow and the horror of war, nonconformist artist is revealed. He looks at the guerrillas landed with admiration: "That guys who fought so that thou art hid like a rat. . Of these heroes of the war, he made portraits, unconventional. While they come to his studio clean-shaven, he asked them to return a few days later, shaggy and unkempt, as if out of the bush. Realistic and poignant, these photographs of great sincerity move us another half-century later. It's the magic of Izis. We guess the ideal of freedom which sucks the photographer and his willingness to break with the norms and conventions of traditional photography.
Intuitive he "pressed the trigger, when [It is] in harmony with what [he] sees " . Reporter for 20 years in Paris Match, he did not abandon his personal introspection, repeated on negatives. Unlike a Robert Capa, seeking the closest image of reality, objectivity of the objective, he modestly leaves imprinted on the film's vulnerability. Strafing against the tide, this passion for painting allegorical rather a reinterpretation of "Her" reality the faithful witness. Outside standard to reverse shot, it captures the essential but not the essence of a moment, his roughness.
Sometimes poetry rhymes with dream. The nightmare of war is followed by the "Paris of Poets." Prévert nicknamed " the peddler of images . Friend of the artist, their Izis draws the portrait: Aragon, Eluard and Breton yet. As a snub to the painful memories, his photographs are full of tenderness and lyricism, whether as subjects of study children, workers, homeless or in love.
Other destinations will follow including London and Israel. It is the sight of a man, an immigrant of Jewish descent, seeking to reinvent an identity, which arises in the Holy Land. This trip comes a series of original images as all illustrations of biblical stories.
often rubs the eternal dream. His friend, Willy Ronis said "Izis the photo has its own music, simple, smooth and delicate, who hide under his popular tunes Disquiet some notes of requiem. . Such as his portraits zoo animals, half dead half alive, caged in the prison of a universe designed to make men dream. Izis also invites us to rediscover the circus and his imagination as a metaphor for the irony of life.
Eternal, infinite, inexhaustible work of his originality is also an astonishing modernity. A complex work, here divided into 9 chapters, "The Birth of an Artist" in 1944 with portraits of unadorned resistant to the World of Chagall in 1969, He was the only journalist accepted by the painter; through the "tout Paris". The exhibition takes us through these some 270 shots, in the heart of a sensible universe, melancholic, elegant and timeless as the Paris of the films in black and white, of "Children of Paradise" and the same Arletty . A Paris immortal mysterious. The visitor leaves by swinging discreet poetry of the artist, as these two women in the gondola of a funfair.
* After studying International Economics and Journalism at Dauphine, Geraldine Piriou his first steps into advertising in the world of women's ready-to-wear. In 2008, she changed direction, heading for India. On his return, it targets journalism. Radio first, then web and print media, including the New Economist. Then follow the TV with news channel i> TELE, and finally to the report.
