Patrick Taberna: A contretemps

Patrick Taberna: A contretemps by Pauline GolaAugust 26, 2013

Wengen, Suisse 2010

I have loved Patrick Taberna’s imagery since I discovered it several years ago and wrote about it on Lenscratch in 2010. His latest project, A contretemps, revolves around family and travel, revealing small moments and gestures that if not seen, would be not remembered. The quiet simplicity of his photographs, looking at color, connections and touch are personal and universal.

Born in St Jean de Luz, Patrick began taking pictures during travels in Europe, Asia, Middle East, USA, while reading “L’Usage du Monde” by Nicolas Bouvier. After his arrival in Paris in 1987, he regularly attended the club 30/40 led by Jean Luc Lemaitre and Francis Richard. In 1997, in conjunction with his exhibition, Passage en Ouest, ten people each received thirty-seven photographs on a weekly basis, which lead to a correspondence between himself, Bernard Plossu and Robert Frank. He also met the latter in April 1999. Patrick was awarded the FNAC mention in 2000 for “Nord magnétique” and won the FNAC Paris award in 2001 for “Nos Italies”. He was the laureate of the HSBC Fondation for the photography in 2004.

A contretemps – 2011

Patrick Taberna started this series six years ago. A contretemps (On the off beat) is a long and slow work about his nearests, mainly produced during different trips. His family is the common thread of his piece of work, and the trip, even nearby, remains an excuse, to create. This need of the trip (even the closest) is a stimulus for the imagination, regaining through it a sense of childhood where every day is full of discoveries, and the mind is fully dedicated to the moment.

“A contretemps” is a work on sensations of childhood, on the impressions lasting in memories, in this slight lag of time in our daily lives. Simplicity is a difficult balance to achieve. Patrick Taberna manages in his photographs to share this happiness with a look that is both simple and unique.

Plossu Bernard wrote in his afterword to “Au fil des jours”: “What I feel, seeing those pictures of Patrick Taberna, that he needs them to live …”. Indeed, this photograph is important because it starts from a need to retain (to regain) this primordial feeling, both common and absolutely personal, that “Rosebud” in us more than we think: the childhood memory.—Didier Brousse (Galerie Camera Obscura Paris)