Spéos in Arles 2022 – Valérie Chauffour et Habib Dargham
This year, Spéos will be present in Arles to showcase the work of French photographer Valérie Chauffour and the portfolio of Habib Dargham.
Come and discover this exhibition from July 4 to 9, 2022 at the Spéos Gallery located at 7 Rue de la Liberté, 13200 Arles – France. The gallery is open every day from 10am to 1pm, and from 2pm to 6pm.
About the exhibition
Capturing moments, take-off and landing cycles always bound back to earth, welcomed by a strip of tarmac.
I am seeking to grasp — by hindsight and via screens — the gestures repeated a thousand times.
As I am buckled down in my seat, an attentive passenger, I hear the familiar sounds of technical announcements resonate in my ears every time the aircraft throttles up, or the landing gear is lowered: a different perspective on reality.
A flight begins and ends on a runway, on all the runways in the world.
A fundamental and ever-present image in a pilot’s mind, the runway is a goal, a target, a constraint. Weather elements keep changing its conditions and demands: the runway hides from view, it shines, is slippery…
In the dichotomy of flying, the runway represents the earth opposed to the sky, but it is also a whole world unto itself, with its own set of rules, markings, lights and signals.
This exhibition was born out of a desire to revisit past impressions, reminisce on a past life.
A meditation on bygone days.
About Valérie Chauffour
Valerie Chauffour is a French photographer based in Paris. Raised around planes, she destined herself to a career in aviation very early on. She first got a business school degree and then became an airline pilot after a stringent self-training program. Over the years, photography came to occupy a major place in her life. In 2015, she decided to fully devote herself to becoming a professional photographer. Her practice is oriented towards documentary, travel, fine art and architecture photography.
Exhibitions:
- Imagenation Paris – Paris Photo Off (Nov 2019)
- Dagao Art District, Chengde, China: “URBAN ART” exhibition organized by UAAF (Sep. 2019 – Mar. 2020)
- Festival Voies Off, Rencontres d’Arles 2019: “CHINATONES” solo exhibition
- Tokyo International Foto Awards. Group exhibition at Shibuya Cultural Center, Tokyo (Feb. 2019)
- Le Salon de la Photo Paris 2017
- Le Rendez-vous de l’Hêtre, Préfailles. Outdoor, group exhibition (2016 and 2017)
- Galerie du Colombier, Paris: abstract series “Station Berlin” (Feb. 2016)
- Salon La Quatrième image, Paris: abstract series “Eaux” (Oct. 2014)
Awards:
- Several nominations and honorable mentions at International Color Awards, Black and White Spider Awards, ND Awards, International Photographer of the Year, Tokyo International Foto Awards (TIFA), Budapest International Foto Awards (BIFA).
- 3rd place winner International Photographer of the Year 2015
- 2nd winner and gold medal TIFA 2018
Commission: Carte Blanche for Paris Saint-Germain Football Club
Valérie is a Spéos 2015 graduate from the Professional Photography Fundamentals program.
About Habib Dargham
Habib Dargham was born in 1995 in Bouar, Lebanon. An only child, he revealed his passion for cinema at the age of 14, collecting hundreds of films, while continuing his studies at Saint Joseph Antoura College. At the age of 21, Habib graduated in audiovisual studies from the Saint Esprit University Kaslik, and started his career as a director and editor by launching a production company “D Production”, taking on fashion projects, TV series, and commercials.
His passion in photojournalism began with the popular uprising of October 17, 2019.
The goal was precise: to create a memory of these events, by making a personal book of the events that have marked him profoundly.
Habib Dargham writes: “I am Lebanese — proud of my country — seeking to immortalize a moment that marked me in the current history of Lebanon. A moment that touched millions of Lebanese and that created a unique hope in the hearts of our young. My photos of the popular uprising are no longer a personal project, but they have become a means of communicating with anyone who wishes to dream and realize their own Lebanon.
After days and nights of clashes and demonstrations against political corruption, my photos are a testimony of my emotional journey and an independent look at the people and their country, which are so close to my heart.
The protests of October 17th, 2019 and the explosion of the port of Beirut in 2020 are not only a landmark moment in the history of Lebanon, but they also make me even fonder of my country and my people who have already suffered so much. I am convinced that Lebanon is capable of rising from its ashes once again. Like a phoenix…”
Habib Dargham is a Spéos 2021 graduate from the Fashion, Luxury & Beauty Photography Program.
He won the very prestigious first Grand Prix du Photoreportage Étudiant – Paris Match 2021/Promotion Olivier Royant for his series “Le cri d’un silence” (The Cry of Silence).
