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« Les petits frères » and photography

les petits frères des Pauvres first started using photography as a means of both institutional and militant communication in the eighties, with an exhibition on old age as part of the activities organised around the 40th anniversary of the Association’s creation.
It thus became one of the first humanitarian organisations in France to realise that photography was beginning to take a place as a major art form in our society.
Indeed it was around this time
– that there was a veritable explosion in the number of specfically photographic events, (exhibitions, shows, retrospectives, festivals and competitions),
– that dedicated public and private institutions came into being (centres, foundations, collections) as well as specialized exhibition spaces (galleries, centres, museums),
– that various publications (books and magazines) started to appear, and
– that the commercialisation of photographs as objects began (posters, postcards, miscellaneous products…).
It was also around this time that the photographers themselves began to earn a degree of notoriety similar to what other artists enjoyed, and that a lucrative and speculative market for photographs was born.
This anniversary exhibition, established in collaboration with the photographer Jean-Marc Vantournhoudt, would lead to two essential encounters: with Martine Franck (Magnum), who immediately volunteered to do a documentary on the work of the Association, and with Robert Delpire, at the time the director of the National Centre for Photography which he had just established.

It was made up of more than one hundred and fifty twentieth-century photographic images and was held at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, before going on tour in France and abroad (including Canada, for the opening of the Quebec Museum of Civilisation).

It led to the publication of a catalogue entitled Un si grand âge, with a preface by Danielle Sallenave.
The documentary by Martine Franck also led to an exhibition and a book, De temps en temps, with a preface by Claude Roy.  It is a shining example of what can be done for an association through the medium of photography.

Following that, Robert Delpire suggested the creation of an Agenda of the petits frères including photos on different themes every year.  Fourteen diaries were produced between 1989 and 2002, with photographs on subjects such as animals, flowers, music, sport… from such prestigious and well-known photographers as Cartier-Bresson, Doisneau, Erwitt, Penn, Riboud…
This series of Agendas des petits frères helped to give a new image of the association to people – and in particular to companies – who were unaware of its existence up until then.  In parallel with the publication of the Agendas, and some of the photographs were used to create a series of tee-shirts and posters aimed at young people.

These fourteen Agendas des petits frères, thanks to the quality of the diaries themselves, as well as to the quality of the photographs (more than 700 of them) make up one of the most beautiful thematic photographic anthologies that exists today.

At the same period, the Association worked on the ambitious project of a series of documentaries on poverty in Europe at the end of the twentieth century, again in collaboration with Jean-Marc Vantournhoudt.  More than fifteen photographers worked on the project (including Jean-Louis Courtinat, Luc Delahaye, Martine Franck, Milomir Kovacevik, Sarah Moon, Sebastião Salgado, …).  This set of documentaries was displayed in an exhibition in the Hôtel-de-Ville in Paris (indeed it was the first ever photographic exhibition to be held there) and then in Barcelona, accompanied by a book called Pauvres de nous.

Apart from these institutional projects, the Association has helped several photographers since the eighties with their own personal projects on the subjects of old age and poverty.

The way old people are portrayed in photographs has changed a lot over the past three decades.  Traditionally they followed old stereotypes, some inspired by nineteenth-century literature (Hugo, Daudet…) while others sought to create an immediate emotional reaction (pity or sympathy).  It was only very rarely that the real subjects of old age caught the attention of photographers.  Giacomelli, and his work on the Senigallia hospice, or Martine Franck were exceptions.  Taking interest in the elderly was considered as being counter productive for a young photographer seeking to make a name.

Today hundreds of quality documentaries on this subject exist in France alone, and it has become a recognised photographic theme in its own right.  Photography now presents a complex and varied panorama view of old age, just as reality itself has become varied and complex.  Styles and approaches vary.

One can only rejoice at the contribution that photography has made to highlighting the problems of the elderly, which is an important subject in contemporary society.  The role played by the association les petits frères des Pauvres along with many friends from the world of photography, in the development of the interest for the elderly amongst photographers, is also a source of delight.

The exhibition Objectif Vieillesse, organised to mark the Association’s 70th anniversary, is thus part of this movement and fulfils the vocation of the petits frères des Pauvres to spotlight the plight of the elderly.

Michel Christolhomme
President of the association Pour Que l’Esprit Vive