As a neighbor, since he has lived for several years on Avenue Niépce, Claude Rochat is investing the exhibition space of this National Scene with works designed to pay homage to the bicentenary of photography and a text to be discovered, on site, thanks to a QR code.
This multi-talented artist had already exhibited throughout the city, notably at the Rendez-Vous du Parc and at the Carmel. For this exhibition, he played with photography and danced with his camera, creating a ballet of light, a movement that brings the night photographed from the 14th floor of the residence where he has taken up residence to life.
Around him for the opening of the exhibition, Tuesday, September 24 at 6 p.m., were many neighbors who came as friends, but also, among others, photography specialists: Claude Limon, President of the Society of Friends of the Nicéphore Niépce Museum and Jean-Louis Bruley, from the Nicéphore Niépce Museum-House in Saint Loup de Varennes. Also noted was the presence of Janick Leconte from the Chef’Op en lumière festival.
Jean-Louis Bruley, during his speech, gave fascinating explanations on the birth of photography. One of the 168 letters making up a correspondence preserved in St Petersburg between the two Niépce brothers reveals the process used to take the first photograph in history but also its date: September 16, 1824 and not 1822, as we have long believed. “The point of view of Gras’ is not the first photograph but the oldest existing.”
The exhibition ‘Dance with Photons’ is exceptional in several ways, because of the beauty of the images it gives us to see but also because it is the one and only time that the Espace des Arts will host this kind of exhibition. For this, Claude Rochat did not fail to thank Nicolas Royer, director of the Espace des Arts and his teams. This project was initiated 4 years ago, it is today a culmination for this protean artist.
Since his arrival in Chalon-sur-Saône, the signs have not been lacking: Claude Rochat lives on Avenue Nicéphore Niépce, not far from the house where this famous name was born, a few kilometers from the one where the latter lived. In another city where he and his partner Bernadette are regulars, they are housed on a street named after the famous inventor. Intriguing coincidence. How could this photography enthusiast not pay tribute, on the occasion of the bicentenary of the creation of photography, to Nicéphore Niépce!
SBR
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“As with words, playing with photography allows us to go beyond our usual perceptions. Photographing at night?! A great challenge. And why not, like Nicéphore Niépce 200 years ago, try to capture light photons to engrave the retina of my digital camera obscura? Another game, between night and light. And let the nocturnal dance begin by scanning the horizon, the cosmos, the stars with my wide open lens. Then, thanks to my 2nd tool, the computer, resize, restructure, recompose this dance of photons to realize and create this new expression present before your eyes. Let yourself be carried away…”, Claude Rochat.
Accessible continuously, during the building’s opening hours: the reception-ticket office is open from Tuesday to Saturday: 10 a.m. > 1 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. > 6:30 p.m.
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