Guillaume Herbaut – Photographs

Guillaume Herbaut, or the grammar of ashes
Since the early 2000s, Guillaume Herbaut has asserted himself as one of the most innovative and audacious representatives of documentary photography in France. In a context of profound changes in the profession of photojournalist and, more globally, of changes in the uses and modes of circulation of photographic images, his work constitutes a relevant contribution to the renewal of a genre that is undergoing a major challenge.
This exhibition at the Carré de Baudouin pavilion allows us to retrace the thread of a decade of work for the first time, and thus to understand the density and profusion of his production.
What catches the eye from the outset is the willingness to confront difficult subjects, to say the least. The meanders and torments of human destiny constitute the raw material of this body of work, from personal experience to history, including news items.
It is probably the most notable feature of the 7/7 ensemble, a long-running work that Guillaume Herbaut constructed chapter after chapter from 2002 to 2008, that it articulates a “sensitive typology” of human dramas.