After its enormous success last year, when over 25,000 visitors attended the festival and were swept away by it, Portrait(s) is now being held for the second time, from 13 June to 31 August 2014, bringing the City of Vichy back for a whole season as a stage for avant-garde photography today with a series of outstanding yet accessible public exhibitions focussing once more on the art of the portrait. The festival will present a variety of different approaches, from traditional documentary portraits to those based in fiction, intimacy or even more conceptual schemes.
© Bruce Gilden / Magnum Photos
Tokyo Compression © Michael Wolf
It will lead the viewer through a whole range of visions and ways of seeing, with works by established and younger artists hanging side by side, in order to enable the public to discover and rediscover the portrait in both its classical and its most challenging forms. This year, Portrait(s) brings together eleven photographers: Jeanloup Sieff, Bruce Gilden, Michael Wolf, Jim Naughten, Martina Bacigalupo, Claudia Huidobro, Vee Speers, Yusuf Sevinc, Editions Filigranes, Ludovic Combe, Cedric Delsau. These eleven exhibitions are being held simultaneously in the city centre.
Series Hereros © Jim Naughten
The Birthday Party © Vee SpeersDuring the festival, the City of Vichy opens also its fourth photography contest. Open to both amateur and professional photographers, the competition as in previous years has the portrait as its main theme. Last year, nearly 300 amateur and professional portrait photographers from both France and elsewhere responded to the city’s call. Once again, a short list of eighteen ways of seeing will be submitted to a jury made up of professional photographers and other figures from the art world, as well as members of the general public.
More infos about the contest: www.vichy-expo.com
Highlights on the festival:
Friday 13th June:
18:00: Official opening of the exhibitions being held in the galleries of the Centre culturel Valery-Larbaud
19:00: Official opening of the Jeanloup Sieff exhibition being held at the start of the Rotunda on the Lac d’Allier promenade
Saturday 14 June: Salle Berlioz, Palais des Congres
11.00: conference chaired by Natacha Wolinski
Book signing with photographers of the programme and flash expo award ceremony, presented by the head of the jury
