Ten Photographic Portraits of Christian Boltanski, 1946–
1964 , 1972
The 62 Members of the Mickey Mouse Club in 1955, 1972
Inventory of Objects that Belonged to a Resident of Oxford,
1973
Photographic Compositions, 1976
Monument: The Children of Dijon, 1985
Archives, 1987
Altar to the Chases High School, 1988
Reserve: The Dead Swiss, 1990
Menschlich (Humanity), 1995
Passion, 1996
The Concessions, 1996
Further Reading
DeRoo, Rebecca. ‘‘Christian Boltanski’s Memory Images:
Remaking French Museums in the Aftermath of ‘68.’’
Oxford Art Journalv. 27 no. 2 (2004): 221–238.
Gumpert, Lynn, and Mary Jane Jacob.Christian Boltanski:
Lessons of Darkness. Chicago: Museum of Contempor-
ary Art, 1988.
Gumpert, Lynn.Christian Boltanski. Paris: Flammarion,
1994.
Marmer, Nancy. ‘‘Boltanski: The Uses of Contradiction.’’
Art in Americav.77 (October 1989): 168–81.
Semin, Didier, Tamar Garb, and Donald Kuspit.Christian
Boltanski. London: Phaidon, 1997.
Solomon-Godeau, Abigail. ‘‘Mourning or Melancholia:
Christian Boltanski’sMissing House.’’Oxford Art Jour-
nalv. 21 no. 2 (1998): 1–20.ROBERT BOURDEAU
Canadian
Since the late 1950s, Robert Bourdeau has been a
bridge between modernists of the early twentieth
century and contemporary photographers. Pursu-
ing a goal more often associated with Pictorialism
(making photographs that evoke timeless feelings
in the beholder) with the visual language of mod-
ernist formalism, Bourdeau has created a body of
work remarkable for its rigorous consistency, both
of vision and of craft, and its lasting fascination
and beauty.
Bourdeau was born in Kingston, Ontario on
November 14, 1931. He lived there with his family
until he went to the University of Toronto to study
architecture in 1957. He had always been an avid
snapshot-taker, but while he studied architecture, he
discovered that the photographs he made of struc-
tures interested him more than the structures them-
selves. This would prove to be an enduring interest.
In 1958, Bourdeau left the University of Toronto.
He returned to Kingston, and there he came across a
back issue ofAperturemagazine from 1955. The
quality and vision of the magazine impressed him.
He immediately wrote to then editor Minor White,
who was in Rochester, New York, and asked to
meet him and to see more issues of Aperture.
White agreed, and their relationship actively con-
tinued in person, through letters and over photo-
graphs until 1968.
Bourdeau’s correspondence with White, along
with his relationship with Paul Strand, whom he
met in New York in 1965, formed the backbone of
his photographic practice. From White, Bour-
deau took an approach to making photographs,
what White, and Alfred Stieglitz before him,
called ‘‘camera work.’’ There is also the concept
of the ‘‘feeling state,’’ an emotional state reached
while photographing.
Bourdeau relates an anecdote where Minor sent
him to contemplateWindowsill Daydreaming—this
was an often-repeated photo reading exercise. After
an hour, Bourdeau returned and said, ‘‘Minor, now
I know what love is all about.’’ White used Bour-
deau’s quote under that image in his bookMirrors,
Messages, Manifestations.
From Strand, Bourdeau gleaned an uncompro-
mising commitment to print craft as well as a sense
of humanity.
Bourdeau cites no other photographic influences.
As his career progressed, he no longer actively
engaged with the work of other photographers, in
order to focus more clearly on his own vision. He
did however find inspiration from a wide range ofBOURDEAU, ROBERT