BERNARD FAUCON
French
Discovered in the early 1980s, the work of Bernard
Faucon is presently linked to ‘‘mise en scene’’ pho- tography, staged or fabricated photographs. With colorful, elaborately constructed images that blend reality and fiction, he has created an original, poe- tic world. Present in the world’s most important public and private collections, Bernard Faucon is one of the rare French contemporary photographers to have achieved international recognition. His fame in par- ticular throughout Japan and in the United States is vast, reflecting a body of work at once modern and romantic, and anchored in universal issues. Born in 1950, Bernard Faucon spent the first 20 years of his life in Apt, a small town in the south of France, where his parents set up a summer house. In 1967, his grandmother offered him his first camera, a Semflex, with which he photographed those clo- sest to him as well as his first landscapes. In 1971, Bernard Faucon settled in Paris, where he studied philosophy at the Sorbonne. There, he was deeply affected by the thinking of the eminent Thomist philosopher Jacques Maritain, with whom he became friendly, and who had a great influence on him. From 1965 on, he began to paint, making pictures inrelief. But it wasin 1976thathepurchased a Hasselblad camera and decided to dedicate himself to photography, then producing his first photo- graphic ‘‘mises en scene.’’ Using mannequins he col-
lected like ready-mades; he reconstructed powerful
moments in an idealized childhood. His mannequins
became veritable characters in fables that at times he
mingled with real children. Among his various
themes, he favored the natural elements: water, fire,
snow;aswellastheessentialritualsofthisyoungage,
such as snack time, games, and parties.
The titles of his photographs:L’enfant qui vole,La
neige qui bruˆle,La come`te,L’enterrement des jouets,
(the child who flies, the burning show, the comet, the
toy burial) evoke a magical world halfway between
dream and reality.
Discovered in 1979 in two exhibitions, the first in
Paris (at the Agathe Gaillard gallery) and the sec-
ond in New York (at Castelli Graphics), he very
quickly achieved international recognition.
He abandoned the use of mannequins in 1981,
however, putting them aside to concentrate on
landscapes and interiors containing the mere traces
of a presence that has already vanished. A glass of
water abandoned on a side table under the full
moon; a lavender field where brilliantly colored
pieces of laundry hang out to dry under a clothes-
line; a party in the shadowy half-darkness in which
one can distinguish lights only from afar. He has
also photographed fires that set nature ablaze. As
in Giorgio de Chirico’s paintings, Bernard Faucon
has created a strange, beautiful, metaphysical at-
mosphere in his work. Little by little, his work
structured itself around several important series
that evoke the passage of time, the fragility of the
moment, and the fleeting quality of happiness.
Simultaneously a scenic designer, stylist, decora-
tor, wardrobe artist, accessory specialist, and lighting
designer, Bernard Faucon has produced rigorously
composed images that require weeks of preparation.
I think of works in series...after a very abstract phase, I
reconstruct the image from details, objects, situations....
Everything is lighted, brightened, even on the outside,
but no effects are added on film. I don’t use filters. If I
need something to be out of focus, I create a light smoke.
I photograph what I want, and even if it lasts only for the
moment of shooting the picture, I can believe I saw it.
(From an interview by Herve ́Guibert,Le Monde14/
01/1981)
He produced only several dozen photographs per
year, always in color, and using an ancient techni-
que, that of the Fresson print, which produces a
patina similar to that of painting. Following the
seriesLes Grandes Vacances(1975–1977) andEvo-
lution probable du temps(1981–1984), he invented
Les Chambres d’Amour (1984–1987). In empty
rooms, embers smolder, wild grasses overtake the
ground, an expanse of cold milk seeps out like a
lake. Ice, straw, dried flowers, an unmade bed make
up his poetic furnishings, the last refuges of his
intimacy, in which the artist’s romantic interroga-
tions and concerns are reflected, as if in a mirror.FAUCON, BERNARD