Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Drowned man

Hippolyte Bayard, from the series Self Portrait as a Drowned Man (Autoportrait Noyé), 1840

"... è evidente che, tra le sue tante peculiarità, l'Autroritratto come un annegato abbia anche quella di essere il primo 'vaffanculo' fotografico al mondo".

Tra le biografie di Hippolyte Bayard che conosco, la mia preferita è probabilmente un breve testo che ho trovato su the nonist. In più, mostra un'altro autoritratto in forma di annegato, sostenendo che Bayard ne realizzò una serie. Ho cercato in giro sul web, ma non ho trovato granché. Se qualcuno ne sa qualcosa, faccia sapere, grazie.

In omaggio al nostro (e al loro, ovviamente) affogato preferito, anni fa études photographiques ha raccontato come realizzare oggi un positivo diretto con la tecnica di Bayard.

Autoportrait Noyé (3), 1840

'Hippolyte Bayard is not exactly a household name is it? More of a “buried in an unknown ditch on the other side of the Earth, who knows when or why, and basically forgotten” kind of name. It might have been otherwise, and during his lifetime, Mr. Bayard was well aware of that fact'.

[...]

'So, evidently, among it’s other distinctions Self Portrait as a Drowned Man also represents the worlds first photographic “fuck you.”'

Of all the bios I read about Hippolyte Bayard, the one by the nonist is probably my favorite. Plus, it shows another Self Portrait as a Drowned Man by Bayard, and talks about a whole series of them, which I never heard anything about. So, if anybody knows anything about that, please let me know, I looked around a bit, but I found almost nothing.

To pay homage to our (and their own, of course) favorite drowned man, years ago études photographiques published a tutorial to make a direct positive with Bayard's technique.

Tania Passafiume, Jardins de la George Eastman House, papier Rising, exposition de 10h 10 à 11h 30, 5 juin 2000.

1 comment:

ARTG33K74 said...

I found a reference to the drowned self-portrait in a book and typed it out here:

http://shellielewis.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/hippolyte-bayard/

Shellie