Philippe Garner has been a key figure in the international photography world for over 50 years. He was in charge of the December 1971 sale at Sotheby’s, London, the first specialist photography sale that was planned as part of that was planned as inaugurating a programme of sales.
Alongside his career as a specialist in photography, he has also had a parallel career as a specialist in decorative art and design. Unbeknownst to many, Garner is also a photographer, and this autumn, Hamiltons Gallery in London, presents the very first exhibition of his photographs, entitled Summer – Seventies – Saint-Tropez, and it coincides with the launch of his website, www.philippegarner.com.
Courtesy of Philippe Garner/Hamiltons Gallery.
The images in the exhibition – all shot on Kodachrome film, notable for the rich and vibrant saturation of its colours – takes the viewer back half a century to discover now-long-erased traces of an old Provence in and around Aix-en- Provence, where Garner was born. A discrete suite of images made on the now-legendary La Voile Rouge beach of Saint-Tropez capture the spirit of its raffish, chic-bohemian heyday.
Courtesy of Philippe Garner/Hamiltons Gallery.
Courtesy of Philippe Garner/Hamiltons Gallery.
Garner explains: ‘I was twenty-three when I took the first of these pictures. Thinking back to those years, I recall how driven I already was to make images that captured the essence of all that engaged me. I had spent much time as a child and teenager in the South of France, based in Aix-en-Provence, where my grandmother lived. That region – including Marseille and the coastal resorts to the east of Marseille and their hinterland – became an important part of my life.’
Courtesy of Philippe Garner/Hamiltons Gallery.
Courtesy of Philippe Garner/Hamiltons Gallery.
’In the Seventies, camera in hand, I was able to respond to my fascination with such subjects as the artisanal typography of commercial signage, the emblematic weathered traces of a Provence that was slipping away, the qualities of the summer light, the sensuality of textures – be they of flaking paint, of food, or of tanned skin. It was fundamental to my approach then – and it remains the case for me today – that the technical aspect of my making photographs should be of the utmost simplicity. My challenge has always been to identify and frame the precise subject that could perfectly reflect my curiosity and my sensibility.’
Read Michael Diemar’s interview with Philippe Garner for the E-Photo Newsletter HERE.
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Courtesy of Philippe Garner/Hamiltons Gallery.
Courtesy of Philippe Garner/Hamiltons Gallery.
Philippe Garner
Summer – Seventies – Saint-Tropez
Hamiltons Gallery
13 Carlos Place
London W1k 2 EU
4 September – 4 October
Courtesy of Philippe Garner/Hamiltons Gallery.