"France under their eyes": 6 alumni on show at the BNF until June 23

In 2021, the French Ministry of Culture launched a major photojournalism commission to establish a panorama of France in the aftermath of the health crisis.

Until June 23, 2024, the Bibliothèque nationale de France is presenting a major exhibition of the work of the 200 winning photographers.

Entitled "LA FRANCE SOUS LE YEUX, 200 regards de photographes sur les années 2020" ("FRANCE UNDER THEIR EYES, 200 photographers' views of the 2020s"), this exhibition of historic proportions brings together a selection of almost 500 images , highlighting the variety of photojournalists' views of France in the 2020s , and the singularity of their photographic writing.

The work of 6 alumni of the Photo and Video program will be exhibited as part of this public commission: Jean-Michel André (2001), Aurore Bagarry (2004), Claire Delfino (2008), Léo D'oriano (2018), Lucie Hodiesne (class of 2020) and Margaux Senlis (class of 2018).

Winner of the Bourse du Talent in 2017, the Cnap in 2022 and the Prix Maison Blanche in 2023, Jean-Michel Andréquestions the limits, memory and evolution of territory through his poetic and political photos .

In 2021, he published "Borders " (Actes Sud), a collection of photographs on the journeys of refugees and exiles in France, Spain, Italy and Turkey. His work was exhibited in Arles the same year.

With " À bout de souffle" (Breathless ), he looks at the heritage and environmental transition taking place in the mining basin of the Hauts-de-France region. His work combines landscape photography, in which nature gradually reclaims its rights, with portraits of miners' children and grandchildren, documenting the consequences of mining operations and subsequent closures.

Jean-Michel André also designed the exhibition poster.

Through her work, Aurore Bagarry proposes a personal reading of the landscape through an inventory of forms as fragile as they are monumental, such as rock or glaciers.

Winner of the "Regards du Grand Paris" commission in 2020 for her "Les formes de l'eau" series, she worked on ancient oceans to reveal the water forms that have shaped the Paris basin through waves of sedimentation. She has also published two photographic works, "Roches" with Gilles A. Tiberghien in 2020, and "Glaciers" with Michel Poivert and Luce Lebart in 2022.

As part of the Grande Commande Photographique program, she has produced a series of bedroom portraits of elderly residents of Prats-de-Mollo-la-Preste in the Pyrenees. Entitled "Le Voyage immobile", the series contrasts these portraits of people no longer able to move around with photos of surrounding landscapes, thus questioning the memory of her subjects.

Photographer and documentary author Claire Delfino works on the themes of femininity, adolescence and work.

Her "Lilith" series examines the codes of seduction integrated by little girls, her "Belinda" series chronicles the pregnancy of a Picardy teenager, and her "Urgences" series documents the strike in the emergency department of the Delafontaine hospital in Saint-Denis.

She also produces portraits of actors, directors and singers.

With the series "Face cachée d'une jeunesse tourmentée" (Hidden face of tormented youth), she sheds light on France's largest psychiatric hospitalization unit dedicated to children aged 11 to 17 , and highlights the impact of the pandemic on the working conditions of caregivers and the quality of life of young patients.

Léo D'Oriano focuses his work on post-traumatic reconstruction. His series in Fukushima, Japan (2019) and Blackpool , United Kingdom (2018) explore what remains after a disaster, questioning theimpact of crises on people's intimacy.

He took an interest in the pandemic through two series: "A bas bruit" and "Ils en avaient 16". In the first, shot in a house on the Baie de Somme, he follows the evolution of a polyamorous affair between 4 protagonists over the course of a year.

With "Ils en avait 16", Léo documents the daily lives of two groups of young people in L'Yonne after the pandemic, photographing them during the most important stages of their lives: the baccalaureate and the post-baccalaureate summer, their entry into higher education or the world of work, to question the end of adolescence.

"Ils en avaient 16" was also exhibited at the 4th biennale de la photographie, organized by the 13th arrondissement town hall last March and April.

As a committed photographer and video artist, Lucie Hodiesne Darras shines a spotlight on people who are invisible to society , with the aim of changing the way they are portrayed.

Her "Lilou" series, begun during her studies, was supported by the Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet Foundation and exhibited at Fotolimo in 2021, Galerie Atelier Guël, the BCN-DH Festival for Human Rights and Social Justice in Barcelona, the Rotterdam Photo Festival in 2022 and the Dali Internation Photo Exhibition in China in 2023.

With "Lilou", she portrays her older brother Antoine, who suffers from severe autism ,and immerses the viewer in his daily life .The series won the PicForChange prize in the "Handicap" category, was also selected by the Bourse du Talent and will be published by Editions Fisheye in the form of a family album-style book in March 2023.

With "Loin des yeux, près du coeur", she looks at the impact that the covid 19 pandemic may have had on people with disabilities (restriction of movement, wearing of masuqe, isolation...). She also focuses on the bond between patients and caregivers.

His UXO series on the persistent danger of landmines in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia was exhibited at Arles and at the Circulation(s) festival. Her work has also been published by Fisheye magazine.

Selected for the Les Femmes s'exposent festival in 2023, "Un miel au goût amer" highlights the decline of bee colonies and its consequences for contemporary agriculture.

"France under their eyes"

Until June 23, 2024

Bibliothèque François-Mitterrand - Galerie 2

Quai François Mauriac, 75706 Paris