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Corinne Vionnet created a series of photographic works, entitled Photo Opportunities, from hundreds of snapshots of tourist locations, which she found on the internet. A conversation with the artist.
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Q: Can you tell me about the process of producing the series? How did you collect the images and how did you process them? A: The idea took some time. I had the motivation and the material, but I didn't yet know how to express what I wanted with this multitude of similar images. I am cautious about manipulating images. I also wanted this work to have a link to classic painting and etching, as they too have contributed to our knowledge of landscape and monuments. For each place, I collected between 200 and 300 similar images, first through search engines and then on photo-sharing websites. The search was based on single keywords for the monument name and/or location. From there, I used hundreds of photos with transparent effects to obtain this final result. For each image, only a part of the monument is chosen to link the hundreds of images – usually a segment that I find important or where there is the greatest similarity amongst the photographs. Taking the example of the Forbidden City in Beijing, the portrait of Mao is used as a meeting point for all the photographs. As for the rest of the image: come what may! Q: Do you feel that you have created new works of your own, or do you feel you have collaborated with the people who took the snapshots? A: This work is intrinsically linked to the people who took these pictures. The collaboration is obvious, but it is without their knowledge. These pictures are on the Internet, to be seen by any eventual visitors. I am just one of those visitors. It is the sheer quantity of these almost identical pictures that gave me the idea of superimposing them. I do not think I would have had the idea if I had made all these pictures of the same places myself. Anyway, the work would loose its meaning. Q: Did you ever visit and photograph these places yourself? A: Yes, of course! I received my very first camera at the age of eight. I had the opportunity around that age to visit the Leaning Tower, the Eiffel Tower and the Acropolis. I still have those photographs today! |
Q: The places you have used are all in our collective memories. Why do you think we (still) have to take pictures of them when we visit such places? A: Since its emergence, photography has been used to identify and take inventory of the buildings, as well as make monuments famous, turning them into symbols. These monument symbols motivate the desire to travel to see them. It is often a long trip to visit Paris, for example, just to see the Eiffel Tower or the Mona Lisa. It is possible that there will not be another opportunity to return. We are looking at a monument that we somehow already know. As a part of knowing that we have also been there, we need the photograph to fix the memory of our visit. By pressing the shutter button, time becomes event, a unique moment. The significance of the representation of the subject is shifted to the presence of the photographers themselves. The images made by tourists are picture imitations. They demonstrate the desire to produce a photograph of an image that already exists, one like those we have already seen. It is in fact a style of manipulating the viewer. Why do we always take the same picture, if not to interact with what already exists? The photograph proves our presence. And to be true, the picture will be perfectly consistent with the pictures in our collective memory. Q: What are the dimensions of the finished works? A: The finished works are 30x40cm. For my portfolio of ‘photo opportunities’, I sent myself postcards through a system offered by the postal service. It is possible to use their website to make images printed as postcards and then send them by snail mail. During an exhibition, I would love to offer visitors this opportunity to send postcards this way. Q: What is your background as an artist and photographer? A: I studied photography for a year at the Paris VIII University and continued on as an autodidact. Since 2004, I have had much more time for my personal work. Last year, I won a grant, which has really helped me concentrate on my various works. These are really precious moments. |
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photo opportunities Statement (English) We travel, we see a monument, and we take a picture. But, we are millions who travel, millions who see this monument, and millions who take the same picture. Following a simple search on the web, Corinne Vionnet looked at this collection of snapshots, almost identical images produced by these "we" anonymous and unidentified, making her choice on statistical major tourist places. By collecting, then bringing together the successive layers of around hundred "photo souvenirs", she brings forward the symbolic value or identity of a city or a country that these monuments have acquired with time, and underlying style of manipulation on the viewer. Why always take the same picture if not to interact with what already exists? The picture gives the proof of "I was there too, here, where everyone comes on a given day". To be true, the picture shall be perfectly similar to the one belonging to the collective memory. Corinne Vionnet's work is therefore a compilation of snapshots in both senses. That is to say that the result is located in the antipodes of the conventional coolness of the photo souvenirs. |
The picture swings between the drawing and the etching. The monumental silhouettes develop into sketches, and then become fragile and dimmer. Presences of watermarks haunt the décor, which disappears in the mist. Finally, the concentration of all those photographs on one subject cannot speak of the object itself but of the time. The passing time, like those curious shadows, which belong to the domain of vagueness, and the eternity congealed into matter transformed into symbol. The power of conjunction, the one of the image with the one of the viewer shine in the uncertain outline of those monuments. The image's strength comes from the subject but the viewer's strength comes from that insignificant photograph, a thousand times repeated and united in a single one. Therefore, from the multitude of pictures, Corinne Vionnet created THE representation, unique for each and every one of those monuments, repre-sentation, which includes all the times, which haunts those places. The tourist's lemmings therefore become the conscientious visitors of their littleness, passing guests with floating shades which seem simply say "I was here" a way to be present next to those giant stones as long as they last. Lydie Le Gléhuir (translation Liliane Biolley) |
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photo opportunities Commentaire (Français) On voyage, on voit un monument, on prend une photo. Mais on est des milliers à voyager, des milliers à voir ce monument, des milliers à prendre la même photo. A la suite d'une simple recherche sur le web, Corinne Vionnet s'est penchée sur ce cumul de clichés presque identiques produit par ce "on", anonyme et indéfini, en portant son choix sur les lieux touristiques statistiquement majeurs. En collectant, puis rassemblant par couches successives une centaine de ces photos souvenirs, elle met en avant la valeur de symbole voire d'identité pour une ville ou un pays que ces monuments ont acquis avec le temps, tout en soulignant une forme de "manipulation" du regard. Car pourquoi faire toujours la même photo sinon pour correspondre involontairement à ce qui existe déjà ? La photo donne la preuve du "J'étais là aussi, là où tout le monde vient un jour". Et pour être vraie l'image doit être parfaitement semblable à celle appartenant à la mémoire collective. Le travail de Corinne Vionnet est donc une compilation de clichés, dans les deux sens du terme, dont le résultat est aux antipodes de la froideur conventionnelle des photos souvenirs. |
L'image hésite entre le dessin et la gravure à l'eau forte. Les silhouettes monumentales prennent des allures d'esquisses, se fragilisent et s'estompent, et des présences en filigranes hantent le décor qui s'évanouit dans la brume. Finalement la concentration de toutes ces photos sur un seul sujet ne parle plus de l'objet même mais du temps : de celui qui passe, comme ces ombres curieuses qui appartiennent au domaine du vague, et de l'éternel, figé dans la matière transformée en symbole. Une conjonction de force, celle de l'image et celle du regard, rayonne dans le contour incertain de ces monuments. La force de l'image vient du sujet mais la force du regard vient de ces photos anodines mille fois répétées réunies en une seule. Ainsi de la multitude photographique Corinne Vionnet a fait naître LA représentation, unique pour chacun de ces monuments, représentation qui inclut tous les temps qui hantent ces lieux. Les touristes moutonnant deviennent ainsi des visiteurs conscients de leur petitesse, hôtes de passage dont les ombres flottantes semblent dire tout simplement "J'étais là", ce qui est une manière d'être présents aux pieds de ces géants de pierres aussi longtemps qu'ils dureront. Lydie Le Gléhuir |
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