the essential
For the European Heritage Days, Baptiste Dété, a nomadic photographer, set up his film camera at the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum under the eye of the artist.
Baptiste Dété, a photographer from Albi, has been walking around the villages of Tarn and Aveyron for some time now, offering to take portraits of people he meets in the street, like a photographer of yesteryear. No question of a digital camera, but with a view camera and its silver paper. A real technique from yesteryear, at a time when it was out of the question to start the photo ten times; when its success was never certain depending on the way the pose was done or the printing work…
“Because the theme of this 41st edition of the European Heritage Days was roaming, I decided to offer my services to the Toulouse Lautrec Museum,” explains the young 30-year-old photographer.
In the village squares
Under the painter’s eye, he set up his portable laboratory and his device at the entrance to the museum and then inside, due to the unpredictable weather. Visitors who wanted to could thus decide to have their portrait taken for a few euros and a little patience to wait for the final result.
A member of the Saint-Juéry film photography club, Baptiste found with “La photo nomade” a way to break the solitude of the photographer in his lab. “I wanted to meet people, to anchor myself in the territory. I don’t call out to the inhabitants when I set up in a village square. I let them come to me. There is always a form of curiosity when faced with my mobile lab and my camera. For the youngest, it is a discovery; for the oldest, it is more in the register of emotion and memories. This allows me to add an educational aspect by explaining how film works, how the image is created with the chemical processes of the developer, the fixer, away from light, in the lab. Sometimes, we don’t take any photos but we have great encounters”.
Around the museum, visitors are often intrigued by all the paraphernalia. Some decide to give in to temptation, in portrait or family photo mode. You have to agree to pose for a still second. Then Baptiste shows the lab work and ten minutes later you discover your image in black and white.
For Baptiste, it’s one of the last outings. Chemistry doesn’t go well with the cold to reveal faces. Nomadic photography will wait for the return of sunny days…
