2024-07-27 06:30:12
With “Europa”, Dominique Souse takes a special and human look at the minorities living in Europe. His black and white film photographs capture the sudden daily life (1980 to 2018) and the uncertain future of a European. Dominique Souse welcomes us into his artist studio in the famous area of 14Th area, behind the railway line. He took up residence there in the 80s, a blessed time when he shared a large courtyard with César, Mirò and Brassaï who created their sculptures there.
“It was here that Caesar created the Centaur which dominates the crossroads of the Red Cross in 6Th area »he mentioned in an amused tone.
Dominique is a woman who, like her photos, assumes simplicity and simplicity necessary to reach the essentials. We can’t understand your art work if we don’t ask you about your childhood.
“I was born in 1953 in Singapore where I lived in a single shirt and I swam naked in the sea. Thiérache is covered with snow. I experience a lot of disconnection with temperature and layers of clothing. My grandparents raised me and gave me the first name of their daughter who died during the war. »
The child is placed in a very balanced environment, close to nature and the peasant world. He likes to go fishing or pick dandelions in the meadows with his grandfather. This emotional and spiritual depth helps him to build himself with simple and loving people.
He learned English, Malay and Chinese in Singapore, but did not understand French. At school, he ignored written words and was intrigued by the pictures in the books… which made him guess the words. In the land of his parents’ absence, he experienced a long period of silence; you learn to be late.
Here is engraved the primacy of images over words: Dominique develops an acuity and a visual sensitivity which will later make him a known, unclassifiable photographer. “I learn from language, I learn through pictures”, notice the artist with the long blue eyes that look like a female animal. Hell, it is. For sure. But it is open to the world and others too.
Past hits include Robert Doisneau, Man Ray, Diego Giacometti…
His father gave him a Rolleiflex 6X6. At the House of Youth and Culture, he discovered photo printing. An au pair in Lille, she studied literature. Afterwards, he went to Paris to study art history at the Sorbonne and earned a degree in cinema. “It was during this time that I met the Argentine actor Sergio de Castro who would become my husband. He introduced me to painting, music, cinema which fed my photographs. We had great encounters with artists like Man Ray, a funny man, full of fantasy. We frequent Diego Giacometti as well as Lee Miller who came to the house.
He made his first book “Vitrines de Paris” alongside Robert Doisneau. He was able to help the shooter of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s photographs. These cross fates affect him, give him wings. Like these great masters, you want black and white.
But how to escape from lean cows? He offers photography lessons to young people as part of ADAC, the Association for the Development of Cultural Animation. Big companies ask you to “value people and places”.
He took fashion photos for the FAM agency and met legendary photographers such as Sarah Moon, Peter Lindbergh…
This eclectic journey – which eats and entertains – allows you to develop in all social ways. But Dominique’s heart is completely marked and familiar with the storms of history. “Celebrity”, “glamorous” or bold photography is not your style. It will be very easy…
Photographs of everyday life, evidence of broken European slag
A beautiful work of black and white film photos entitled “Europa” is not a geography, but a history, of Europe from the 80s to 2018… As if the camera wanted to be silent before Covid.
We see Dominique working in Belgium, Germany, Spain, Greece, Poland, Albania, Denmark…
He mixes the Asia of his first impressions and the harsh North of his childhood to bring out photographs of everyday life, evidence of the dross of broken Europe.
His eyes feast on the present that blends with the past that he doesn’t want (and can’t) forget.
Of course there is in the background the trauma of his grandparents who were chased by the Germans, who experienced evacuation, losing three children during the war.
Pain, poverty, anxiety are at the heart of his art work. But there is also joy, hope through the unity of the little people. It’s a book full of humanity which, despite the raw and raw images, warms the heart. The guy isn’t that bad…
Two boys make a basket with an abandoned tree (Naples, 1985), one of Dominique Souse’s photographs published in “Europa”.
The first picture (Belgium) looks like a baptism: a young man is bathing, his friend at the beach gives him a big white bath towel. From there, the story begins. There are many children from the first pages. In the absence of toys, they create. The cover of the book shows a child playing with a water plane (East Berlin). The windows of the gray house that surrounded him were silent. They look at it, they are the world. Two boys build a raft with discarded pieces of wood (Naples).
A little girl gives a cat to an old man (France). “I gave this cat to my grandfather who was sad after the death of his wife. He committed suicide the day before my first show at La Voix du Nord. comments photographer.
In this corpus, emphasis is placed on intergenerational links. A little girl looks after her blind grandmother (Italy). We had a wedding ceremony at the cemetery. A few cold countries (Denmark, Albania) are included in the pages. Appearances are nervous, suspicious, elsewhere. As if a war could suddenly break out in Europe.
“Since 1945, wars have been silent, except for the painful history of the Balkans. They returned with Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Hamas… A war left its mark on three generations. I am part of the party. Young people don’t get the warning signs of a possible war. »
Dominique Souse is a gentle and modest woman. It does not show the concern of the rest, the concern of strong women. Without this book, who would have guessed that he would have experienced such a harsh fate?
“Europa” by Dominique Souse: 57 black and white film photographs, a large foreword by Carole Naggar, photography historian, poet and writer. Published by Mare & Martin, January 2024, 29 euros. www.mareetmartin.com.
For more:
https://www.instagram.com/dominiquesouse/
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