LaMAINdonne éditions, /www.lamindonne.fr

“Le Tirage àmains nues” ,  Printing with Bare Hands. First Edition sold out

Nominated Lauréat du Prix HiP 2020, Catégorie “Histoire de la photographie”

Guillaume Geneste est le créateur du laboratoire La Chambre Noire à Paris. L’un des derniers tireurs argentique en France et le compagnon de route de nombreux photographes… Dans ce livre, il nous livre ses ré exions sur le travail de tireur, sur les rela- tions qu’il entretient avec l’artiste photographe, sur l’avenir de ce métier. Ré exions, anecdotes et entretiens avec de grands noms de la photographie internationale (Ralph Gibson, Duane Michals, Sid Kaplan ou Howard Greenberg…), tout autant que des photo- graphes français de toutes générations (Arnaud Claass, Gabrielle Duplantier, Valérie Belin, Jo Terrien…), nous font entrer dans les coulisses du métier de tireur.

L’occasion de recroiser le chemin et les photographies de Jacques Henri Lartigue, Klavdij Sluban, Denis Roche, Bernard Plossu, Henri Cartier Bresson, Martine Franck, Pierre de Fenoÿl, Sabine Weiss, Anne-Lise Broyer et tant d’autres encore…

Un livre sans précédent, ni technique, ni théorique, mais un livre de passion et d’émotion qui fera référence sur le sujet.

Sheepwire 1. Photo Amelia Stein

My short text included in the book as follows :

To enter the darkroom, the sacred place, quite, calm bathed in low light, red light .
The ritual, making the arrangements for time to spend in the darkroom making prints together .
Arriving in Paris, from Dublin, Ireland with all of the expectation, anticipation, excitement, and fear .
Pressing the code for the street door, it swings open, stepping inside, the corridor leads to the door of the Laboratory.
The hanging bells announce my arrival as I push the door open, that moment of reacquaintance, a smile on Guillaume’s face .
Order, calm, prints drying, apprehension, impostor syndrome, coffee and I take a deep breath .
I hand over the negatives and the interpretation will begin .
The curtain of dark fabric is pushed aside and we enter the world of alchemy.
Guilliaume brings another layer of interpretation to each image, those years of handing film paper and chemicals
His incredible knowledge of the medium of the black and white print, intuition and experience.
The ability to grasp at an implied emotion and translate it.
Sometimes we talk . Sometimes not . Mostly in French, loosing my inhibitions about my scrappy grasp of the language in the dim light.
Always we have lunch early . We talk about photo books and family.
Always I learn something new, about this obsession, the silver gelatin print , about my work, other photographers work
I see each image in a new light, watch the test prints being folded and discarded.
I think about working harder when I am next on a headland watching the day glide over the land. Waiting .
The dry and finished prints, full of my intended emotional content and more, rarely disappoint when I collect them the following day .
I leave with a box under my arm and make my way home from Avenue Jean Pierre Timbaud, a backward glance to Opera Gariner as I pay for my fare on the Roissybus to the Airport .
This box will next be on my table in Dublin, the ceremony of opening it and regarding our work together in different light, Irish light .