Anne Noble, Ruby’s Room (1998-2007)

October 30th 2007 – January 13th 2008

Curator: Yves Le Fur, Deputy Director of Heritage and Collections at the Quai Branly Museum.

This series of exceptionally large format prints reflects the artist’s vision of childhood via an exploration of “what children do with their mouths”. Anne Noble, a renowned figure of New-Zealander photography, speaks of her work as a form of ‘alternative archeology’. This series of around forty images is dedicated to her daughter, Ruby, and until now, it has only been displayed in New Zealand, Australia, Germany and Spain. Owing to the deliberately disproportionate scale of the images (compared with the apparent banality of the subject), the artist attempts to highlight details of the mouth in a rather unusual manner. Through use of extremely contrasting colors and direct flash, this part of the body is captured in numerous symbolic modes: eating, expression, and speaking.

Camera obscura, first daguerreotypes from the period 1841-1851

October 30th 2007 – January 13th 2008

Curator: Christine Barthe, Head of Photographic Collections at the Quai Branly Museum.

The museum holds an exceptional collection of daguerreotypes among its oldest collected works, some of which were exhibited during the ‘D’un regard l’Autre’ (from one vision to another) Exhibition. ‘Daguerrrotypes’ is displayed in the West Gallery in juxtaposition with another photography exhibition: Ruby’s Room, a collection of large color prints. ‘Daguerrrotypes’ plays on contrasts between format, color and technique; the daguerreotype offering a reflection of a fleeting image. More precisely, this exhibition presents daguerreotypes taken in East Africa by Commander Charles Guillain between 1846 and 1848.

Walker Evans

October 30th 2007 – November 25th 2007

Musée du quai Branly / Pavillon des Sessions

The Quai Branly Museum possesses one of the 17 Walker Evans portfolios from the African Art Exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1935. It is one of the rare series of complete portfolios left in the world and it covers a selection of statuettes and masks (477 images).
During Photoquai, visitors to the Pavillon des Sessions will be able to view these exceptional images and compare them with the works that inspired them or similar objects.