Melos is a book between darkness and hope. The image above these lines should alert the attentive viewer. On this old postcard, annotated by the sender marked “Far Eastern and sad hello.” While geographical annotations attest to the complexity of the region.
This incipit seems to sum up the view reached by Guillaume Lebrun-journey that led from Istanbul to Thessaloniki via neighboring Bulgaria. These places are one of the crucibles of European and Mediterranean civilizations. But they are also an area where identities, languages, nationalities, religions have continued to object, trying to hold sway over each other.
The unity of place, the community of destiny are reflected in the portraits of young people has drawn the photographer. Impossible for me to determine whether the girl or boy are Greek, Bulgarian and Turkish.
The fracture, it is evident in the landscape as in the detail views. It often results in the work of Guillaume Lebrun by the inability to see, which is opposed, of course, the desire to see. The photographer but also that of the viewer. Desire that counteracts the author. For this, it deploys various strategies. That the veil first. As this red curtain that leaves hardly reflected the view from a hotel room, or the striped window that hides the beauty of Hagia Sophia, or the rain that erases the contours of the Bosphorus.
[…]

Rémi Coignet

Released
15/03/2016
Collection
Hors Collection
Format
210 x 260
Français
Relié couverture cartonnée
62 photos colors and blanck and white
96 pages
ISBN : 978-2-35046-382-7
Press review
36 special edition numbered accompanied by a photographic print signed by Guillaume Lebrun.
* Selectable between three photographs, each taken 12 copies: print 24 x 16.5 cm.
  • Melos
    Photo #1
  • Melos
    Photo #2
  • Melos
    Photo #3
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Guillaume Lebrun

Photographe

Photographer, member of the journal The Eyes and teacher, I live in Paris and works at home and abroad. My photographic work is inspired by the history of Europe, literature and film. From England to Turkey, via Greece and the Balkans, I traveled the continent in search of my own European identity.

Critic and editor, Rémi Coignet launched Books and pictures in 2008. It contributes to Polka Magazine and is on the editorial board of the journal The Eyes. His writings have been published in numerous national and international magazines such as Les Inrockuptibles, The Photobook Review, Ahorn or The Magazine of Bibliophile. In 2014 he published the book Conversations, a collection of his interviews with photographers.

Humanist intellectual adventurer, unconditional love of England, scoured Mexico’s America to Alaska, ran several continents from Beijing to Zanzibar, before succumbing to the rough charm of the Balkans. He is the author of a travelogue.