Former member of the Magnum Photos agency and close friend of the publisher Robert Delpire (1926-2017), the French photographer Marc Riboud (1923-2016) was the author of emblematic images, such as The Flower Girl, produced in 1967, and The Painter of the Eiffel Tower, taken in 1953 in Paris.
Entitled “Marc Riboud. Possible stories ”, this exhibition – which takes place until September 6 at the Guimet Museum, in Paris – offers a journey of nearly fifty years on all continents, from the first photographs taken in Lyon (the city of his childhood) to Asia.
This retrospective marks the entry of his work into the national collections – fruit of a meeting, in 2013, with Catherine Riboud Chaine, wife of the photographer and sister-in-law of two major donors to the museum, the couple Jean (1919-1985) and Krishnâ Riboud (1926-2000).
Catherine Riboud Chaine comments here on a selection of photographs presented as part of this exhibition.
“Barely entered the Magnum agency in Paris, Marc Riboud, encouraged by Robert Capa, leaves for a year in England. Solitary, he visits museums, the city which is reborn despite the destruction and post-war poverty. Here at the British Museum, an elegant man admires a Greek horse. Maybe before going to the races… ”
“Zao Wou-ki had said to Marc Riboud: ‘You have to go to Huang Shan. It can’t be told, you have to see it. ” And Marc Riboud went there in 1984, before returning there five or six times, overwhelmed by the beauty of the place, which had already inspired the great Chinese painters of the Song era. Drowned in the mist, the rocky peaks rise, bristling with pines growing out of the rock, forming a landscape that is unique in the world. “
““ Hue will remain the Guernica of Vietnam ”, wrote Marc Riboud in The world of April 13, 1968, returning from ten days spent in the city in ruins. The terrible Tet offensive, followed by the American response, had all but destroyed the former imperial capital, killing thousands of soldiers on both sides, and killing hundreds of thousands of civilians. In this devastated landscape, the woman – in her long dress, which elegantly carries her two baskets – alone evokes the aristocratic culture that reigned in the city. “
“This is the photograph of a young 30-year-old provincial – Marc Riboud goes up to Paris and sees that the Iron Lady is being repainted. Applied pupil of Henri Cartier-Bresson, he uses a viewfinder that inverts the image. He then sees this dancer upside down, and takes the photograph that Capa will sell to Life and who will bring him to the Magnum agency. “
“In 1955, with the old Land Rover of his friend George Rodger, Marc Riboud left Beirut to go to Calcutta by road. Here in Iran, he photographs wrestlers in training. Wrestlers who, for the pleasure of the geometry-loving photographer, form a circle with their bodies. “
“The Khyber Pass, on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan, saw the barbarian invasions, the armies of Alexander and all the warriors in the region pass. But, this day in 1956, it is a peaceful cyclist who crosses the pass – while Marc Riboud, with a mischievous look, hesitates between the road of the cars and the path of the camels and donkeys. “
“One day in January 1957, Marc Riboud entered China for the first time, via Hong Kong. And it is on the train heading for Canton that he photographs this graceful peasant woman. Marc Riboud had this art of capturing the beauty of gestures, as if suspended in time. “
“In 1956, Marc Riboud spent a year in India. From Chandigarh to Darjeeling, from Bombay to Benares, he travels the country looking for subjects for the press, and the Magnum agency. In Calcutta, he photographs the preparations for the Kali festival. “
“Posted inside an antique store, Marc Riboud observes street life and seems to take three photos at the same time. The viewer is watched by the two girls on either side, and by the man sitting on a step, as life goes on in each frame. “