Gérard Rondeau

Gérard
Rondeau

biography

Gérard Rondeau was born on April 10, 1953 in Châlons-sur-Marne and died on September 13, 2016 in Créteil.

Gérard Rondeau discovered photography through a book by Henri Cartier-Bresson on the USSR, found in the library of the Alliance Française in Kandy, Sri Lanka, which he directed.

From then on, he abandons his professional activity to dedicate himself to photography, which he learns as a self-taught photographer. He became a recognized photographer and was exhibited in the greatest museums such as the Nationals Gallery of Paris’s Grand Palais or the National Gallery in Jakarta. He also participates in the European Month of Photography in Paris, the Festival de la Luz in Buenos Aires, exhibits at the Museum of l’Élysée in Lausanne and at the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin. He has been exploring the backstage of museums for more than twenty years.

In Istanbul, New York, Sarajevo and Rome, he invented series hailed for their singularity. A great portraitist commissioned by Le Monde for more than twenty years, he gathered a very large collection of portraits of contemporary painters and writers.

For many years, he forged strong friendships, notably with the painter Paul Rebeyrolle and the novelist Yves Gibeau, with whom he traveled the battlefields of the First World War.

A tireless traveler, Rondeau criss-crosses the world but remains deeply attached to his native Champagne (France) where he has chosen to live, taking a new look at the landscapes and the people that make it up.

Gérard Rondeau navigates in a black and white world where he takes endless paths, plays with words, shadows and silences that he assembles to render the stories of suffering worlds.

Author of numerous books on Benin, the cathedrals of France, the Baltic capitals, the Tour de France… Rondeau is a rare and singular photographer. His books and exhibitions seems like a kind of diaries, novels.

Gérard Rondeau was elected Artist of the Year in the category of Plastic Arts at the Crystal Globes ceremony in 2007.

Series

A Boat on the Marne River, 2009

Gérard Rondeau is a lover of the Marne. When he mentions it, the words clash with enthusiasm. So much so that he would almost apologize. He is bubbling. And for good reason, it is a story that lasts. For almost 4 years.

Morocco, tribute to Delacroix, 1999

In Morocco, Delacroix left to paint and draw "from nature", to experience lights, colors, shapes, horses and riders, faces and bodies.

Gérard Rondeau séries

The Silence, And Nothing Around, 1994

By organizing, on white sheets, the dialogue between photographs captured in everyday life of this wartime and the words emerging from this wartime situation, we do not claim to add a new stone to the factual narrative.

Gérard Rondeau séries

Out of Frame, 1993

Under the light of a neon light, an outstretched hand brushes the headdress of a woman with sidelong gaze, one of the characters in The Fortune Teller, painted by Georges de La Tour three centuries ago.

Gérard Rondeau séries

Missions, Doctors, up to the other side of the world, 1989

It all started in Orly on December 22, 1989. That evening, news of Ceaucescu's fall was announced. An anesthetist friend hired by Médecins du Monde drove me into high gear at Orly airport: there, part of Hall number 2 is occupied by a group of adventurous doctors.

Gérard Rondeau séries

Chroniques d’un portraitiste, 1986

Gérard Rondeau made dozens of portraits. These women and men are photographed motionless, as if slowly. Rondeau gives them time to get used to his presence and, if possible, to forget its indiscretion.

Gérard Rondeau séries

The Chemin des dames (1981-2003)

In 1981, Gérard Rondeau began working alongside French writer Yves Gibeau in the harsh landscapes of the Chemin des Dames, staging ground of several major battles that took place during WWI.

Gérard Rondeau séries