synopsis
Hakanai Sonzai extends the photographic experience conducted in immersion in 2016 in Cuba (published in Desmemoria). Pierre-Elie de Pibrac goes to Japan in 2020, a country which experienced the Fukushima tsunami and where the inhabitants speak little about their emotions, their psychological and intimate concerns. He then traveled the country and met people whose destiny was turned upside down following the earthquake. For centuries, Japan has developed the concept of Mono no Aware, a sensitivity to the ephemeral, an acute perception of the impermanence of things. The title of the work Hakanai Sonzai refers to it by this translation: “I feel myself an ephemeral creature”. Thus, over the pages of a book, which unfolds like a large-format album, the reader slowly penetrates into the intimacy of women, men and children, who slowly become “characters”. The photographer takes portraits with a view camera, in natural light, like mental images told by the subjects themselves and imagined by the artist.
Punctuated with portfolios of B&W urban landscapes printed on a different paper, Pierre-Elie de Pibrac's images immerse us in Japanese culture. They speak of obsolescence and show the fragile beauty of our human condition, accompanied by several tankas by the Japanese poet Kujira Sakisaka. An essay by Michel Poivert explores this corpus by making the link between the obsolescence of the photographic medium and that of our modern societies, Japan being at the heart of the excesses of the Anthropocene.
technical information
Publisher : Atelier EXB
2023
Hardcover
dimensions : 24.5 x 34.5 cm
184 pages
89 B&W and color photographs
Texts (in French) : Michel Poivert & Kujira Sakisaka
2023
Hardcover
dimensions : 24.5 x 34.5 cm
184 pages
89 B&W and color photographs
Texts (in French) : Michel Poivert & Kujira Sakisaka
about Pierre-Elie de Pibrac
by Pierre-Elie de Pibrac
Pierre-Elie de Pibrac was born in Paris in 1983. In 2007, he made his first report in Myanmar. His first images won several prizes and competitions organized by magazines like Paris Match and Photo, or mobile phone companies such as Orange and SFR. In 2009, Pierre-Elie worked side-by-side with leading photographers from the Vu’ agency, such as Denis Darzacq, Claudine Doury and Rip Hopkins. The same year, soon after graduating from a renowned business school, EDHEC Business School, he decided to devote himself fully to photography. He is the grandson of the photographer Paul de Cordon.
Pierre-Elie produced his first large-scale series in New York in 2010 based on the theme of photographic perception and objects. Bearing the titles American Showcase and Les Frontières de la Perception (the Edge of Perception), the project was very well received by the public and press, and resulted in the production of a book called American Showcase, published by Archibooks. The book showcases Pierre-Elie de Pibrac’s emerging trademark: beyond the subject being dealt with, the photographer seeks to transform the image by inventing new concepts with which to make his own mark. The audience discovers a “photographic object” whose aesthetic rendering brings to life a totally unique and puzzling perception.
The finished product that emerged from it was an exhibition and a most beautiful 368 page book called “In Situ : dans les coulisses de l’Opéra de Paris” (In Situ – Behind the Scenes of the Opéra de Paris), published by Clémentine de la Feronnière. This passionate photographic journey about ballet and the Palais Garnier is enriched with testimonies of étoile dancers and other famous dance personalities. In Situ – Behind the Scenes of the Opéra de Paris was exhibited in Paris during the Mois de la Photo Off 2014, in Miami in 2015 and at Paris Photo Paris and Los Angeles, Zona Maco and Zona Maco Foto fairs in 2015 and Art Wynwood in 2016.
In 2012, following on from a documentary made two years previously in the USA, Pierre-Elie produced the Real Life Super Heroes (RLSH) series, featuring this famous American phenomenon. A book entitled Real Life Super Heroes was published for the occasion by PapelArt – Serious Publishing.
Pibrac exhibits his works in France and abroad in numerous galleries and prestigious venues like the Grand Palais in Paris. His work has also been on display at various fairs such as Cutlog and Paris Show Off during the FIAC! 2010 international modern art fair, the Lille Art Fair in 2010 and the Brussels AAF in 2012.
With an ability to move energetically between different photographic realms, the photographer Pierre-Elie de Pibrac decided during the 2013-2014 season to follow the ballet dancers of the Opéra de Paris. Immersed in the life of the dance company and behind the scenes of the Garnier and Bastille operas, he adapted his lens with great sensitivity to the subject at hand.
The Confidences series is made up exclusively of black and white photos and films. In the two other series presented as part of this work, he uses colour.
By means of a certain technique and new way of seeing, Catharsis highlights the abstract nature of the image. This series is the fruit of research carried out on transcribing the energy emitted by the dancers and spreading it out in space. Ballet’s power is revealed to the audience in a new, transcendental way.
Analogia illustrates in 14 works the sustained echo within the walls of the majestic Palais Garnier and the dancers of the ballet company. Photographed with a rigged view camera, this series highlights the immenseness of this theatre and its influence on the dancers who move about within it.
From november 2016 to june 2017, In Situ has been showed at La Havana, at the Casa VIctor Hugo. This exhibition was the biggest photo show ever done in Cuba.
From October 2016 to June 2017, Pierre-Elie de Pibrac spent 8 months with his family in Cuba to realize the Desmemoria project, a testimony, both anthropological and social, about the life of the Azucareros, a people from sugar, living for the sugar and revolutionary of the first hour. Through this testimony Pierre-Elie opens a reflection on the identity of Cubans and the influence of sugar production on it. He won the Prix Levallois with this project. In 2019, Pierre-Elie released the project book with the editions Xavier Barral and won the 2020 HIP Prize for the best photo book in the “report and history” category. Desmemoria will also be nominated for the prestigious Prix Pictet in 2021. Desmemoria has been exhibited multiple times at the Rencontres d’Arles and also had an exhibition at the Museum of the New World in La Rochelle.
From December 2019 to August 2020 Pierre-Elie lived for 8 months with his family in Japan to work on his project entitled Hakanai Sonzai which means “I myself feel an ephemeral creature”. This project tells the story of individuals who seek to understand their identity in the face of the weight of the rules of the society in which they operate through the notion of Mono no Aware, which represents sensitivity for the ephemeral, vanity and the impermanence of everything. This project was awarded at the prestigious Taylor Wessing Photographic Prize from the National Portrait Gallery in 2021 and was nominated at the Leica Oskar Barnack Award. Hakanai Sonzai is exhibited at the prestigious Guimet Museum in Paris from 09/20/23 to 01/15/24 under the title Ephemeral Portrait of Japan. On this occasion, Pierre-Elie has released a book titled Hakanai Sonzai by Atelier EXB .
Pierre-Elie is represented by the VU’ Agency and the gallery Anne-Laure Buffard.
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Publisher : Atelier EXB
2023
2023