François Millo has been living his passion for photography for 50 years. With his open-mindedness developed through his many travels, he has been capturing a multicultural world since the age of 20. Now well established in a vineyard in the Var, he puts his experiences under glass, for the benefit of exhibitions. One of them is visible until August 31 in a restaurant in Fréjus, “Sous les platines”. This exhibition is one of the most atypical that he has been able to organize. Each shot has been carefully reworked, making the final result unrecognizable from the original photo.
“To photograph is to fix”
Twelve to fifteen photographs are exhibited and François Millo was looking above all for a place with a “clientele interested in art”. The photographs were taken all over the world, without a predefined theme. François Millo explains that he has photographed the hands of a priest in Bali, a landscape in Provence, and a tree in Sri Lanka. This flexibility has allowed him to accumulate a great diversity of images with different stories. The artist first wishes “take photos of the moment so you don’t forget anything.”
It testifies: “I feel like I’m preventing a scene from being forgotten. To photograph is to fix.” The specificity of this exhibition in partnership with the association “Le Graal” lies in the sense of detail that has been attributed to it. The photographer has deliberately excessively retouched his photos, in order to “only retain the important elements”.
“Don’t limit yourself to traditional photography”
For this work, François Millo did not take the easy route. “It takes me a lot of time to choose what I’m going to photograph in view of the work behind it“, he specifies. The 73-year-old artist explains that certain subjects are incompatible with the retouching that awaits him, once he returns home: “For example, for this exhibition, I could have used plain backgrounds like the sky, but on the contrary, grass doesn’t work with the techniques I use.”
A meticulous work therefore, which he handles to perfection. Defining himself with “a look that undresses [son] artwork”the photographer uses digital software to give a reworked, almost abstract look to his shots. He proudly assumes it: for him, there is no question of underestimating the stylized photo. “We must not limit ourselves to traditional photography”assures the exhibitor.
The latter intends to legitimize his methods: “Retouched photography has a bad reputation, but I think it’s normal that we seek art through technique.”
Learn more
François Millot is also exhibiting from July 8 to 13 at the Monique-Flochlay room and the Galerie d’Emma, rue du Safranié in Saint-Raphaël. From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Opening on July 12 at 7 p.m.
