Digital photography wiped out everything in its way. The funerals of silver films were expedited to avoid any resistance. The more the technology seemed outdated, the more its ghosts reappeared in nostalgic interrogations. Traditional methods have become trendy. Above and beyond market demands, certain values are being revealed and rediscovered. The banality of digital technology has led buyers elsewhere. And it is not surprising that the Elysée Museum of Lausanne organized this exhibition about the Photomaton five years after their exhibition “Tous Photographes”. It is part of the latest craze to attract people via their iPhone applications to seek out Photomaton machines both in Paris and New York, not to mention last year publication by La Martinière books.

But the exhibition on display here from February 17 to May 20, 2012 goes beyond the infamous Photomaton curtains, identity pictures, and unusual technique. Curators Clément Chéroux and Sam Stourdzé, also Museum’s Director, have retraced the history of the Photomaton aesthetic through some 600 documents from various media (photography, painting, lithographs and videos) by 60 international artists, turning this exhibition into the world’s first comprehensive study of the Photomaton aesthetic. 

The exhibition reveals that as early as the 1920’s, when Photomaton’s first appeared in Paris, artists exploited the machine’s technique. Especially surrealists who found a connection to automatic writing and were “compulsive” consumers: cheap and quick, it was possible to have a variety of experiences with the portrait. On the other hand, several contemporary artists transformed the process in order to tell stories, their stories, reinventing the world or transforming and playing with their identities. From Andy Warhol to Arnulf Rainer, and including Thomas Ruff, Cindy Sherman or Gillian Wearing, many artists used and were influenced by the Photomaton. The curators divided the exhibition into six major thematic sections.

The “Cabin”, most often located in public spaces (subway, train station, supermarket…) “provided an extraordinary observation post to the urban world, on the borderline between intimate and public…” But the original form differed from today’s version. The first attempts, presented at the Universal Exposition of Paris, date back to 1889 and were not as successful as the one created in 1925 by Russian American Anatol Josepho who patented today’s Photomaton. In 1928, New York street ads claimed it possible to have “8 pictures in 8 minutes for 25 cents”. In France, the cabin was opened at the Parisian studio of Willy Michel near the Boulevard des Italiens. This section offers pictures by Lee Friedlander, Näkki Goranin, Svetlana Khachaturova, Naomi Leibowitz, Léon Levinstein, Steven Pippin, Timm Rautert, Bruno Richard, Gerhard Richter, Dimitri Soulas and Jan Wenzel.

The “automatics” that so fascinated the surrealists and other artists endlessly exploring the malfunctions, mistakes, and errors made by the machine. Among them: Richard Avedon, Daniel Minnick, Arnulf Rainer, Franco Vaccari and Andy Warhol ; the surrealists : Louis Aragon, Marie - Berthe Aurenche, Jacques - André Boiffard, André Breton, Paul Eluard, Max Ernst, Suzanne Muzard, Jacques Prévert, Raymond Queneau, Yves Tanguy ; and the Fluxus group : Eric Andersen, Joseph Beuys, Bazon Brock, Stanley Brouwn, Henning Christiansen, Robert Filliou, Ludwig Gosewitz, Arthur Koepcke, Tomas Schmit, Ben Vautier, Wolf Vostell and Emmett Williams.

The third section, "The Strip", characteristic of the Photomaton and its series of pictures. "The Photomaton is cinematic in nature with its sequential pictures. Putting one picture after another is always a way of telling a story…” Here are featured works by Jean - Michel Alberola, Jared Bark, Marc Bellini, Jeff Grostern, Raynal Pellicer, Michel Salsmann, Roland Topor and Jan Wenzel.

"Who am I?" raises questions about identity, its construction or deconstruction with its procession of smiles and distortions. Here, works by Alain Baczynsky, Hansjürg Buchmeier, Anita Cruz - Eberhard, Sabine Delafon, Susan Hiller, Jürgen Klauke, Annette Messager, Tomoko Sawada, Cindy Sherman, Gillian Wearing or David Wojnarowicz. 
"Who are you?" also raises the legal questions of “identity papers” including works by Anne Deleporte, Michael Fent, Michel Folco, Valentine Fournier, Dick Jewell, Mathieu Pernot, Thomas Ruff or Joachim Schmid.

Finally "Who are we?" is a reflection on the group or family portrait with works by Jacques - Henri Lartigue with Richard Avedon and Florette, Willy Michel, Lorna Simpson, Amanda Tetrault and a collection of "purikuras" or very popular "Print Clubs" among young Japanese girls after 1995.

The exhibition catalogue published by Photosynthèses provides additional information with a variety of texts including Bruce McDonald’s 2007 “The Tracey Fragments” about movies that in one form or another featured the Photomaton.

In preparations for this exhibition, the Elysée Museum purchased in 2011 Photomaton self portraits by Yves Tanguy, early works by Cindy Sherman, the MS 65-94 series by Michel Salsmann and three works by Mathieu Pernot.

A 1960’s Photomaton will be available for use in the Café Elise throughout the duration of the exhibition.

“Behind the Curtain – the Photomaton Aesthetic” is a joint European collaboration and will be featured at the Botanique in Brussels ( June 28 - August 26, 2012) before heading to Vienna’s Kunsthaus ( October 11, 2012 – January 13, 2013 ).

Bernard Perrine
Bernard.Perrine1@orange.fr

Exhibition

Derrière le rideau
L'esthétique du Photomaton
Jusqu'au 20 mai 2012

Musée de l'Élysée
18 avenue de l'Elysée
CH-1014 Lausanne
+41 21 316 99 11
mardi-dimanche 11-18h

Publication

Derrière le rideau
L'esthétique du photomaton

Clément Chéroux , Sam Stourdzé
Texts: Ilsen About, Clément Chéroux, Martin Crawl, Anne Lacoste, Nora Mathys, Kim Timby, Brian Meacham, Giuliano Sergio et Sam Stourdzé. 350 pages

Musée de l'Élysée / Éditions Photosynthèses
editions.photosyntheses@orange.fr