Exhibit: ""The World's Most Beautiful Shots"
June-September 1999
Maison Européenne de la photographie

 

 

 

Memoire de collectionneur
par Patrick Jeudy

Bandeau expo
This exhibit resumes the history of a passion for "filmed archives." They are not photographs, yet not entirely unlike photography.

Like photos, they depict the trends, evolutions, and curiosities prevalent throughout the century. Both have provided proof of History's upheavals, conveyed the same emotions, shown the same role models.

These images last three to five seconds and have an artistic or emotional quality that move me. One could qualify them as "magic shots.".

They belong to the filmmakers who, for the most part, remain anonymous. These shots might never have been developed; they might be lost in archive files, forgotten in various reels, seen too often and taken for granted, or not seen often enough and overlooked.

In a year, I'm lucky if I find one magic shot, perhaps spliced between a couple of mediocre cutaway shots. When I find it, I isolate the shot and see how it holds its own as I observe it frame by frame.

Sometimes the shot is filled with such beauty, as if printed and developed by a great photographer, sometimes the movement within the shot is so perfect that I keep it all for myself. I make the shot my own, working with it the way a sculptor works with clay. The color, focus, or speed of the shot might reveal a gesture, a fleeting person, or emtional drama

War, death, and misery are prevalent themes in this exhibit, dreadful components of our reality. Stars who appear in newsreels make for lighter subject matter. Maria Callas, Brigitte Bardot, Ava Gardner, Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe... each had her own way with the camera, as they fixed their gaze on the lens and seemed to tell us, "I'm waiting..."


 

 

 

 

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