French Photography Exists ... I Met Her, at the European House of Photography

At the end of the 1980s, at the conclusion of a friendly interview in New York, Jean Luc Monterosso, who was then not yet director of the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, timidly asked John Szarkowski, the famous curator for photography at MoMA, what he thought of French photography at that time. The response, although given in a matter of fact manner and without malice, came to obsess him. Szarkowski’s reply was, “It does not exist”.

More than thirty years later, Paris has once again become a world centre of the still image and so, on the occasion of his departure from the MEP, Jean-Luc Monterosso finally responds to that casual comment with an exhibition on French photography from 1980 to today. It features the works of the photographers he met and liked, but above all it embodies his own personal biases and convictions to take the form of a narrative that is as personal as it is subjective.

French Photography Exists ... I Met Her at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie
From March 7^th to May 20^th, 2018

57 Rue de Fourcy, 4^th
20 minutes by foot from the Hotel Monge

Open Wednesday to Sunday from 11:00 to 19:45
www.mep-fr.org

Photo: Pierre and Gilles, Les Amants de Paris, 2018 © Pierre et Gilles