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| Guillaume Herbaut, a young French photographer and member of the "Public Eye" collective, has become increasingly detached to photojournalism - the result of which he attributes to working with color. He is the winner of numerous prizes in France, and his work has been featured in exhibitions in such esteemed institutions as Le Centre Photographique d'Ile de France, as well as the Jeu de Paume in Paris. Herbaut's project 7/7, seven series that make reference to the events that have marked the 20th century, inscribes itself over time in the autobiography of our communal memory, recent or long-since past. These same places inhabited by the traces of that which was produced there, paradoxically contributes to making a palpable "voice-over" in our collective imagination. The territory is seemingly marked forever and photography as a medium reveals this interaction. It is without doubt that today the role of documentary as opposed to fiction, must rid itself of the movingly humanistic clichés often required by the press. 5/7: Urakami, a body of work made in 2005, reveals the exemplary manner specific to the oeuvre of Guillaume Herbaut. Consider first the context from which this work has emerged: a personal project for the photographer, for which he received the support of a foundation scholarship, it is part of a rigorous program divided into seven parts (all produced between 2002 and 2008). Guillaume Herbaut then proposed the subject to a magazine who decided to produce it. And this anecdote is noteworthy because it is indicative of how Herbaut autonomously built a body of work whose scope goes far beyond photojournalism as it is understood today, without giving up his job as reporter. With Urakami, Herbaut continues his investigation of the past through the understanding of survival. Urakami is the name of the district where the Nagasaki bomb was dropped on August 9, 1945. Faced with the challenge of photographing an event from 60 years prior, Guillaume Herbaut decides to show the suffering of the hibakushas - victims twice-over, first of the bomb and then the isolation in which they survived, suffering the rejection of their fellow citizens. 5/7: Urakami was produced with the assistance of Foundation 3P. Agnès Sire Foundation Henri Cartier-Bresson |
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