The French café: photography exhibition, Paris

A photography exhibition in Paris is a tribute to the women and men across France who keep cafés open ‘like a lighthouse in the night.’

Along the railings of the park next to the Town Hall of the 14th arrondissement in Paris is a photography exhibition paying tribute ‘to the happiness of Bistrots.’

The photographs represent the works of two different photographers and their studies of cafe bistros which French novelist Honore de Balzac (1799-1850) describes as 'parliaments of the people.'

The photographic exhibition, from 1 June to 27 August 2023, displays the photos of Pierre Josse and Pierrick Bourgault. From 2010 to the present day, cafés, from Loire to Le Mans and around the twenty suburbs of Paris, are shown in colour and in black and white.

Their photos highlight the social bond created around a bistrot, a coffee bar, representing the ‘art of living in France’s bistros and cafés as an intangible cultural heritage.’ It aims to safeguard this café culture as a culture of social sharing and exchange – a ‘precious human value’ in the society of life.

Pierre Josse describes himself as a professional hobo. He has been wandering the world for 40 years as editor-in-chief of Le Guide du Routard. He loves to socialize, communicate, read, dream, and, of course, taste the ‘strangest beverages on earth.’ He says he never fails to immortalize all of his favourite cafés in his photography.

Pierrick Bougault is an author and journalist in the fields of agriculture and anthropology. He loves listening, observing, describing, and taking pictures. He says his photography uses the ‘light of the place and the moment’ in order to reveal the universe of a person, a world in miniature.

MARTINA NICOLLS

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Martina Nicolls is an Australian author and international human rights-based consultant in education, healing and wellbeing, peace and stabilisation, and foreign aid audits and evaluations.

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