Mois de la photographie explores the mixed history of photography and the book

The 14th edition of Mois de la photographie in Paris focuses on the printed page, with Michelle Debat tracing the relationship between photography and the book since the late 19th century. The event interrogates notions of original and multiple, the status of the photographer and artist, definitions of the photography book and artist's book, and the relationship between image-book and digital image. Numerous events are planned, including monographic exhibitions of Heartfield and Boubat, a selection of Soviet photomontages, and a history of advertising photography. Debat argues that the recent interest in the photography book coincides with the rise of digital imagery, which lacks material support and has opened up thinking about the page and double-page. She traces the evolution from early photographic albums like Talbot's "The Pencil of Nature" (1845) to the industrial photomechanical processes of the late 1870s, surrealist collaborations like "Facile" (1935) with poems by Paul Éluard and photographs by Man Ray, and the influence of Russian avant-garde and Bauhaus typography. Key examples include Moï Ver's "Paris" (1931), William Klein's "Life Is Good & Good for You in New York" (1956), Robert Frank's "Les Américains" (1958), and Christian Boltanski's "Les Modèles" (1979). Contemporary works by Rip Hopkins ("Déplacés", 2004) and Jean-Philippe Reverdot ("Tirage limité", 2006) are presented as examples of the "œuvre en livre" where the book itself becomes the artwork.