Even if it’s not obvious , the art lover will always find references to the great masters of painting in a photograph by Lucien Clergue. In his recent work using double exposures and superimposition, the references are clear. During his travels, Clergue has had the opportunity to visit museums around the world. The origin of these Venetian nudes is his passion for art. In 1979, when asked by Cornell Capa to participate in the photo festival “Venezia 79. La Fotografia,” Clergue accepted the invitation on the condition that he be able to work in a historic Venetian palace on the Grand Canal, where he photographed three models using a color palette reminiscent of a spring afternoon. The male subject was a professional photography model, another was an intern at a workshop he was holding in Venice, and the last was a French girl who happened to be passing along the canal..

“I basically demanded it,” says Clergue, “because it was a dream inspired by Casanova’s memoirs. And also because it was in Venice that I made the scenery for a ballet at La Fenice. My taste for staging had come back to me: placing characters in a symbolic setting but without a preconceived scenario, and creating an atmosphere with the shadows of each subject, which appear and disappear with the lights.”

Bernard Perrine
Bernard.Perrine1@orange.fr

Read the full text of this article in the French version of Le Journal.

"Nus vénitiens"
Photographs of Lucien Clergue
Texts et poems by Marc Lambron
Seghers éditeur, 67 pages
27 B&W photographs