Olivier Culmann shoots Pernod Ricard’s 12th Carte Blanche Campaign: The Conviviality Connection

Pernod Ricard entrusts its 12th Carte Blanche to Olivier Culmann around “resistant” conviviality.

“This photographic campaign is a tribute to cafés, to people, to territories, to conviviality.

Four weeks criss-crossing the roads of France to “capture moments of alchemy between a light, a landscape, a place and the actors who make cafés-bars live every day”. This unique creative grant honors ten stories of men and women who have the common denominator of having found the courage to maintain a true and authentic conviviality in the heart of their local communities, despite the pandemic. More than a thousand shots and a hundred faces have been captured by the photographer’s eye and lens.

His project is distinguished by its principle of accumulation. The world of cafés and restaurants is transcribed through six photographic series, with recognizable typologies: group photos in the style of soccer teams, “old-fashioned” portraits of café managers, photomatons, postcards, architectural reviews of the establishments, bistro accessories against a backdrop of Formica, zinc or checked tablecloths… With this Carte Blanche, Olivier Culmann invites us to rediscover the very essence of conviviality.

The exhibition “The Conviviality Connection” will be take place at Paris Photo, November 11 to 14, 2021, Grand Palais Éphémère.