Plossu Cinéma: Bernard Plossu's Film and Photo Worlds at Frac Paca and La Non-Maison

The Frac Paca in Marseille and Galerie La Non-Maison in Aix-en-Provence present a double exhibition and catalogue exploring Bernard Plossu's lifelong engagement with cinema, from January 22 to April 17, 2010. Plossu, known as a major photographer, began as an apprentice filmmaker in the mid-1950s, influenced by the French New Wave and figures like Roger Caillois and Jean Rouch. During a 1960s expedition in the Chiapas jungle searching for Lacandon Indians, he lost his camera and switched to photography, which he pursued thereafter. His first book from that Mexican journey brought him fame in the US comparable to Robert Frank. He also worked with Apache communities, spent over twenty years in the US, and photographed the Peuls Bororos in Niger. Theorist Edward T. Hall and New Topographics photographer Lewis Baltz wrote prefaces for his books. The exhibition highlights Plossu's cinematic approach: close-ups of his muse Michèle in 1960s Paris, image superimpositions, and experimental framing. Plossu lives in La Ciotat, where the Lumière brothers pioneered cinema. The show presents his photographs as film stills, emphasizing movement and temporality.