Dear Shaded Viewers,
Last December, I met an astonishing photographer : Edouard Brane. He exposed in a gallery in the 6th Arrondissement, Prima la musica an exhibition about the intimacy of opera performers. He deeply moved me, and after an interview I realized that we agreed about a lot of points about opera in our times. For once, I am not going to be partial. I will still explain the process of the Artist that I’m interested in, but I have to tell you from the bottom of my heart how magnetic the lyrical genre is.
Edouard Brane is a funny man, very optimistic, very playful, eager to gives stories about his pictures.He’s got the natural ability to explain opera’s intrigues in a funny way to children. His first passion was cinema that he discovered while in high school. He has the eye to create a powerful image with a striking pose and impactful colors. Bridges are created between cinema and classical music. Viewers are taking time to figure out that a picture with the opening crédits of Browning’s Dracula concert is a modern orchestration to the movie led by the pianist on the left side of the picture. Then the pictures of the two dancers in LA(HORDE)’s We should never have walked on the Moon is appealing. But that seems quite predicable. We knew they were going to dance Edouard says. Maybe the key to the emotions is away…
Not very far indeed, because we get to see a portrait of Michael Spyres made after the Recording of his debut album Barythenor. It is a clear allusion, to The Desperate by Gustave Courbet. However Edouard’s work is asking us : « what if ». Being very spontanreous, very realistic it’s like if we are in front of improvisation itself and we cannot predict what the performer will do the moment after. His videoclip of the Legend of Kleinzack is a stripping example of his spontaneity. In the Silencio nightclub designed by David Lynch. Spyres sings the famous aria of Hoffmann’s tales. Olympia, Antonia and Giulietta the three main women of the opera are none other Michel Fau, a hilarious french comedian with a unequivocal humour in drag.
The spontaneity Edouard gives to his performers is a deep love letter to them. After treating opera like a movie to reveal raw feelings, he decided to shoot the performers in their dressing rooms. While it seems contradictory, it’s in fact the most interesting moment: it reveals the inner strength of the performer as himself. There Barbara Hannigan is anxiously waiting with her partner, french actor Mathieu Amalric. He’s still amazed how she’s always high on energy. Hugo Marchand, has a determined glance. Gathering the intensity to tap the stage like he recently did in Bejart’s Boléro . Dorothee Gibert is disruptive with her quietness changing her ballet slippers between two dramatically lit spaces. He calls the moment the providence. A more powerful moment than the decisive instant of Cartier Bresson, a moment when you see the constant strength of the performer in and out of the stage.
Finally, Edouard reveals more than the making of a show. He reveals the chore of the genre: passion. Where does that passion come from? Only one possible answer: Italy. You can easily spot the difference between his shots in Paris and the country where it all started. People, laugh and dance in those pictures and even a little girl is held by her dad. There’s a Picture of the Sun blinding us, a funny situation inviting us to feel, alive first. We almost finish the exhibition with lovers but one Picture catches our eyes: Two lovers. Although they are a recurring motive in the history of photography, the picture is more than ever contemporary. The woman with loose hair that fiercely touches her lover’s face in Saint Germain des Près. The true miracle will happen 5 years after when Edouard will add on Facebook the actress Lucrèce Carmignac, the Woman in the Picture. A friend tagged her on the Picture without knowing it was her. At the moment he saw she accepted his invitation, he was listening to… Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia !
We complete our tour with Claire de Lune with the advice to listen Nocturne 2nd of Chopin. A masterful ending making us see that authentic will aways be the first inspiration. Then he proposes an unusual documentary series, Poi la parole. Here, Edouard proposes the interview of 10 aficionados. He turns them into powerful heroes transcending their introvert habits. Edouard is off to new projects in a different side of our Society, but you can still meet him in Catherine Baba‘s Dévotion or in some more devilish parties.
Later
Mael Heinz
