Paris forever (VU’ à Paris), 2006
In Paris, the town of the cinema, Richard Dumas, just like a writer, lets his gaze and his soul roam.
Approriating the spirit of La chambre verte, he dialogues with spirit of La chambre verte, he dialogues with his dear departed, like for sure, the couple Straub and Huillet, crossed by chance, as a sign of fate, in the cemetery. A halt in the cemetery over the tomb of François Truffaut which is visited by cats. Jean-Pierre Léaud and a few others play The Four Hundred Blows on Henri Langlois’ tomb. Juliette has found Man Ray. Oscar’s tom his smeared with lipstick.
How can you photograph absence ?
It all started in the sue de Seine due to the mineral sensuality of a wasp-waisted sculpture. One feels that the first picture in the series of Paris Forever is a metter of life and death. Later on, the bosom of a statue in the cemetery carved in stone, mingle death and eroticism. One thinks of Bataille. The need to hold onto what is about to desappear, to query its representation. Richard Dumas, the photographer, can waken the dead.
« I’ve never painted a recent picture in my life ». Man Ray