The Eye of Photography opens a new column on the photographic collective, with the words of Benjamin Rullier. Far from the figure of the solitary artist, photographers choose to group together into collectives. Multi-party projects, bridges between practices, economic realities: each month, a founding or active member presents their collective, its specificities and its challenges. Join the group!
Located in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, founded more than 10 years ago by a group of photographers undergoing professional reconversion, creator of an exhibition room in a town of 300 inhabitants, Blick Photographie defends the desire to create together on a territory. Meeting with Chloé Colin, co-founder of the collective.
How did you get into photography?
I have always had an interest in art and culture. After my studies, I worked at the Institute of Fine Arts in Mexico and that’s where I allowed myself to photograph. It was a fairly simple tool to use but ultimately very demanding: understanding the image, the photographic language, using it as a medium. And then my father took photos and he passed that on to me before he died. As the photo is closely linked to death and mourning, it had all the more meaning.
What started your movement towards the collective?
In 2012, I looked for training to retrain in photography and I entered the Bloo school in Lyon which was currently being created. Over a one-year training course, we had the chance to do workshops with stars with very different perspectives: Michael Ackerman, Anders Petersen, Jeffrey Wolin, Delphine Balley, Elina Brotherus, Olivier Culmann, Richard Dumas, Stéphane Charpentier. And it was really the workshop with Bertrand Meunier from Tendance floue that we really liked. He notably told us the history of the collective. I really liked this story of working together: enriching each other with different perspectives, stimulating everyone’s creativity, pushing each other towards high standards, avoiding complacency, moving towards the best.
Is this where Blick was born?
With Amandine Bailly, we launched the adventure. And then there was Loïc Xavier who is still with me as co-director, Malika Mihoubi and Damien Brailly: we were all in professional reconversion. Like Tendance Floue, we wanted to spend time in photographic areas and work together.
For you, the work of photography was therefore immediately collective?
The photographer is an author’s job and like that of a writer it is quite solitary and for me that is not what I am looking for. I like to be stimulated by the exchange.
What were your first works?
As soon as I left school, I started a project called Species of Spaces to question the interaction between space and the individual. I launched a project in the town of Saint-Fons and three of us worked there. I also started talking about Blick, about all my ideas and we quickly became a photographic partner in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region to lead artistic practice workshops. We worked with the MJC of Villeurbanne which we were able to run for a whole year. And then the Drac (Regional Directorates of Cultural Affairs) changed its policy and decided to allocate more resources to the countryside which was considered to be culturally damaged. There, for example, we were propelled into the town of Tarare, between Lyon and Roanne.
How did you experience this shift?
Some might be embarrassed to arrive in a specific territory. We also realized that it was not so easy to work as a collective, because we had different characters, very different writing styles. In fact, the Drac and the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region gave us a direction that we almost did not choose at the start, but while supporting us both financially and morally. It was precious.
What has become the characteristic, the direction, the DNA of Blick?
The starting point is the territory: soaking up the space to each work with our writing, with our gaze.
Transmission and mediation also play an important role.
We have a message that we have always put forward: “if you don’t let us create, mediation won’t be interesting.” We do not create workshops for mediation, we each develop our creations and we share from the moment we create. We found the solution to earn our living while developing our work and defending it.
Is it this desire to defend the work of photographers that led you to create the Grand Colombier photographic space?
We wanted to highlight the artistic, to welcome quality photographers (Stéphane Charpentier, Sarah Ritter, etc.) in good conditions. Already within the association we work voluntarily and it can be tiring, at least we want to be able to pay the artists! And it also made sense to offer these exhibitions in the middle of the countryside. There is nothing except between Lyon and Geneva, we are in the middle. Unfortunately the place is on hiatus due to loss of support and we do not want to do an exhibition without paying the photographers.
Is it a continuing race for funding?
We’ve been around for over ten years and it’s still a hectic pace because we always have a lot of work. We are reaching a point where we should hire someone to manage the association. It’s a question of money and time, of constantly redoing financing files.
Is this one of the limitations of this model?
The model is good, but what is difficult is managing this collective. Everyone finds it good, but when it comes to administration and coordination, there are fewer people to help. All artists try to find their economy: it’s always compromises between creative time and earning a living. There are very few people who have the time to manage an association on the side.
Who are the people who make up Blick Photographie?
At the beginning, we integrated photographers through word of mouth, then we put out calls for applications. We gradually opened up to other mediums, but we always want the image to be at the center. We all trained a little in sound and video, some like me today approach more the work of a visual artist, mixing different artistic media.
What can the collective bring to photographers?
In addition to working together, mixing perspectives, when new artists carry out projects via the collective, there is all this liability that accompanies them. It facilitates the validation of projects and financing, it multiplies the networks in this small world of photography.
Can you tell us about a current project?
Our new big project is called DÉ/S/RIVES and focuses on the Rhône and water. It’s a project that mixes photography, sound, video and writing led by Ahmed Boubakeur, Loïc Xavier, Marine Lanier, and myself. The idea being to link scientific and artistic discourse around water. We were invited to do a residency at a school in Villeurbanne. In the workshop part they were asked to work on “Rives and Dreams”, which made sense in this establishment separated from the Rhône by the motorway. It is a project made up of several fragments which will be carried out until 2026.
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Photographer, author and journalist, Benjamin Rullier explores the image, the text and their way of responding to each other. In his personal projects, he carries out long-term work around human themes such as mourning, free time, and the relationship with the body. By collaborating with cultural (L’Oeil de la Photographie, Kostar, Wik) and social (La Topette, Bobine Magazine) media, he likes to build bridges between culture and society, particularly around photo portraits and texts.
