Augure is a visual essay on topical photography from the 1960s / 1970s based on press clippings from the leading news magazine of that time. The series confronts commercial iconography with that of reports to offer a reflection on the duplicity of photographic practice and the influence of advertising on our collective imagination.
At a time when French television was still a state monopoly (it remained so officially until 1982) and when the radio and the written press were the dominant media, the weekly press appeared to many photographers-reporters as a professional recognition by offering publications in large format and in color. The paper press is nonetheless a boon for advertisers who see in this large format and the promise of striking reports a space conducive to advertising.
Associating the often violent images of conflicts with those no less frontal of the products and precepts of the consumerist society, Augure looks back on an ambiguous and crucial time for the future of photography: the idea of photographic objectivity is fading away in favor. the recognition of the photographer-author and the growing presence of advertising clichés patiently models readers into future consumers. In this schizophrenic environment, the accounts of major geopolitical episodes (decolonization, Vietnam War, May 68, Prague Spring etc.) adjoin the promotion of a DS, an electric razor or a vacuum cleaner, and the faces political leaders merge with those of movie stars.
By reinterpreting the visual seduction of a bygone era, Augure then plays on visual amalgamations to suggest the idea that even today, history is less a matter of framing than of editing. A semiotic puzzle, the series can be read - like the Greek and Roman priests - like a game of interpretation of signs and symbols extracted from the bowels of the press.
Publisher: Les Éditions Rien Ne Va Plus
City: Paris, France
Year: 2021
Pages: 52 p.
Dimensions: 35 x 27 cm.
Cover: Paperback
Binding: Sewn Bound
Process: Risograph
