Galerie Nathalie Obadia is pleased to present a new solo exhibition, in Paris, by Patrick Faigenbaum, considered one of the most important photographers of his generation. The exhibition brings together works from three distinct series: Rue de Clichy, juin 2024, previously unseen, pays tribute to his late mother's home; Cristallerie Saint-Louis (2022) is the result of several weeks of immersion in the heart of the crystal factory in the Northern Vosges; and finally, Santulussurgiu (1999-2019) explores his wife's native village in Sardinia, where the artist has regularly holidayed since the late 1990s. In the light that grazes a piece of fruit or an object, Patrick Faigenbaum conveys "the interstice between things" as a tangible presence -a space where time seems suspended, impossible to date.
Born in Paris, in 1954, Patrick Faigenbaum has been developing a body of work for over forty years that combines pictorial heritage and documentary rigor. Trained as a painter, he turned to photography in the 1970s, stayed at the Villa Medici from 1985 to 1987, and received the Henri Cartier-Bresson Prize in 2013. His practice is rooted in a deep familiarity with the history of painting, which gives his images a painterly dimension where "the art of composition occupies a central place." For the artist, photography seeks a form of slowness and uncertainty:
"Like the effect of painting, it dilutes […] sharpness is never a precise point in his work." It is as if time hesitated to settle. Here, the gaze seeks less to capture than to accommodate - to tame what it sees as much as what it does not see. This tension between presence and effacement gives his portraits, still lifes, and landscapes a meditative quality. The current exhibition resonates with the artist's personal memory while weaving a collective narrative.
The new series, Rue de Clichy, juin 2024, of which two photographs are exhibited here, is a continuation of L'appartement de Suzanne - 34, rue de Clichy (2016-2021): after his mother's death in 2015, Patrick Faigenbaum took over her apartment in Paris, photographing each room in its undisturbed state, along with the furniture and the objects that accompanied her throughout her life. From these familiar fragments, he composed a mosaic of memories, halfway between a diary and a still life. In 2024, the artist reopened boxes that contained the utensils of his childhood, destined to be forgotten. "Before parting with them, I wanted to preserve the memory, so I set about creating these images," he confides. His compositions transform the shine of metal, the fragility of porcelain, and the banality of utensils into silent actors in a domestic narrative.
The Cristallerie Saint-Louis series is the result of an invitation extended to the artist by the Fondation d'entreprise Hermès in 2022. Since childhood, Patrick Faigenbaum has been fascinated by the Tommy glasses³ -of which a number of multicolor roemers were included in his aunt's wedding trousseau. He spent several weeks in Saint-Louis-lès-Bitche, in the Northern Vosges, where he photographed the factory, its artisans, and their environment, capturing both the colorful brilliance of the crystal and the precision of the techniques passed down from generation to generation.
The Santulussurgiu series, created over many years, forms a Mediterranean fresco, bathed in radiant light. Here, documentary rigor is combined with a painterly meditation on color and composition. The photographic montage Le Citronnier (2019), presented in the exhibition, lies at the crossroads between landscapes, portraits, and still lifes-in which Jean-François Chevrier saw "landscapes in miniature." Begun more than twenty years ago, this series is now considered as an essential milestone in the artist's oeuvre, intertwining territory, memory and family history.
The convergence of these works from three distinct series draws an "interior geography" in which "places and objects form a network of memory, lineage, and transmission," according to the artist. Devoid of human figures, these photographs nevertheless possess a singular presence.
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¹Jean-François Chevrier, cited in the press release for the exhibition Patrick Faigenbaum à la Cristallerie Saint-Louis, Fondation d'entreprise Hermès, 2022.
²Corinne Rondeau, "Exhibitions: The Devil's Fidelity, Hommage à Delacroix, Patrick Faigenbaum," La Dispute, France Culture, January 18, 2012.
³Created in 1928 by the Cristallerie Saint-Louis, the Tommy glasses are recognizable by their characteristic carved decoration. Hand-blown and hand-cut, they have become a reference in fine tableware and exist in many colors.
