TrAVerSéE2nUiT which in French translates as Traversée de Nuit means in English A night crossing.
This net art photographic project, of 36,864 pixels and composed of 36 views of 1024 pixels scrolling to the rhythm of a crossing of the Mediterranean Sea under a grazing moonlight, is the evocation for the art of photography, of the end of the era of film and the appearance of that of digital; a violent fracture which already announces the death of a technology but which opens up infinite possibilities despite a quality much lower than that of film. Comment by Éric Petr in 2004
« The Salon des Réalités Nouvelles is an association of artists and an art exhibition in Paris, focusing on abstract art. The exhibition takes place annually in October and ranks among the top Parisian art salons.
The expression “réalités nouvelles” –“new realities” — was penned in 1912 by the poet Guillaume Apollinaire to designate abstraction as the form best suited to expressing modern reality.
The first exhibition with the name was held in 1939 in Galerie Charpentier, organised by Robert Delaunay, Sonia Delaunay, Nelly van Doesburg and Fredo Sidès. In 1946 the Salon was officially established as a successor to Abstraction-Création by Fredo Sidès, and its first board included Jean Arp, Sonia Delaunay and Albert Gleizes as members. Sidès was chairman until his death in 1953.
With enthusiastic critical support in its early days, the Salon quickly proved successful, presenting geometric and concrete works by artists such as Jean Dewasne and Victor Vasarely as well as non-figurative works by Pierre Soulages, Georges Mathieu, Vieira de Silva, and Robert Motherwell.
Since 1956, the Salon has embraced all abstract trends, including allusive figuration and conceptual forms, as well as a variety of media ranging from painting and sculpture to photography, installation, and the digital.
Over the years the exhibition has been held at a number of different locations. Since 2004 it has been located at the Parc Floral de Paris, showing painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, installation, engraving, and digital media by over 350 artists each year. Exhibitors are chosen by a jury, based on a portfolio presentation.
Current abstract trends represented include allusive figuration as well as conceptual, concrete, geometric, gestural, haptic, lyrical, and nominalist abstraction. Painters, sculptors, and installation artists show one work each; artists showing smaller format work on paper – such as prints and drawings – are allowed two or three works apiece.
Since 2008, under the leadership of its president Olivier di Pizio, the Salon has expanded its exhibition scope to include a series of “Hors les Murs” (“Beyond the Walls”) shows in France and internationally (Beldrade in 2013 and Beijing in 2014).
The association’s governing committee, presided by Olivier di Pizio, is composed of the following artist-members. »
He lives in Marseille and, very discreetly, walks around with his camera into public and sacred places. His photographs dazzle, amaze young children through their beauty. They subjugate, astonish mature viewers.
Eric Petr, at seven years old, was a precocious and talented “shooter”. Humble and belonging to no one, his photos, variations of light, summarize what life is: fragility and greatness. …
INTERVIEW
Why did you choose photography?
I didn’t choose it. It imposed itself on me as if something in my subconscious memory was always connected to it. When I look into the eye of my camera, a distance from the world is created, and this distance is what gives me the necessary space to feel in sync with this world. Ever since I looked though the viewfinder of the 6×9 my father lent me at a very young age, I was fascinated by this alternating ambiguity between being an observer and an actor in the observation. For me, photography is the way to free something unconscious, dominated by an instinctive drive, inspiration.
How did you end up making these types of photos?
It was a long journey, but, in the end, when I think about it, everything is pretty consistant. I always had the desire to draw out the invisible record of the interconnection of universal elements and the relationship that connects us to them.
What would you like to photograph you haven’t yet?
My dream would be to photograph what came before the Big Bang, just to reassure myself and tell that our universe is only a fraction of a spark of a world in perpetual movement, not a world frozen between parentheses, a world without a father.
What influences the figurative for you?
The figurative stabilizes the elements. It assures us that we are. It reassures us in the sense that we can see, is. It creates an image frozen in our present. This image take an atemporal dimension through which our minds can travel in the spacetime of our imagination.
What is the relationship between the brand names Nippon Kogaku, Nikkor and Nikon? A purely personal analysis rooted in Japanese writing.
Explanations…
The NIKON Company was created in 1917 following a merger of three major Japanese optics groups under the name Nippon Kōgaku Kōgyō 日本光学工業 (Japanese Optics SA). If we unpack, it comes to: 日本 Nippon (Japan) 光学 Kōgaku (Optics) 工業 Kōgyō (Industry).
It was only in 1945, after the war, that the company decided to launch a program for the production of cameras and spectacle lenses. Between 1945 and 1946, tests were launched and the company moved towards marketing its first camera, under the name NIKON 1, which was actually marketed for a year in 1948, followed shortly afterwards, in 1949, by a second model, the NIKON M. It was 40 years after giving this name to its first camera, that the firm Nippon Kôgaku Kôgyô 日本光学工業 took the trade name NIKON ニコン Corporation.
But the name NIKKOR ニッコール came long before the firm Nippon Kôgaku Kôgyô changed its name to NIKON ニコン in 1988.
The name NIKKOR ニッコール was registered in 1931 to identify its new line of lenses for photography, whose production was used in particular to supply lenses to the LEICA, CONTAX and then CANON companies until 1947.
But why and how was the name NIKKOR chosen at the time (1931), and what does it mean?
NIKKOR comes from the contraction of Nippon Kôgaku, and an “R” has been added to the end of the new name.
To understand the obviousness of this contraction, we need to look at the interplay of Kanjis (Japanese characters or letters) that occurs. Indeed, if the explanation doesn’t make sense with Western characters, it becomes much more eloquent when reading Japanese characters or kanji.
Let me explain. Nippon Kôgaku 日本光学, comes from 日本 (japan) and 光学 (lenses), which gives: “Japanese optics”. The contraction results from the subtraction of two kanji from the initial name of the firm. We start from, 日(本)光(学), Ni(ppon) Kō(gaku) or Japanese optics, to arrive at the following contraction, 日光 (Nikkō) which means: “sunbeam”. We suddenly understand better this subtle transformation which, for someone who knows how to read Japanese, becomes obvious.
Then, simply apply a new spelling to this name, borrowing from another Japanese writing system (Katakana), to obtain with the same phonetics and the same word “Nikkō” 日光 but written: ニッコー and add to it, an “R” or “ル” to obtain the final result: NIKKOR ニッコール.
The name NIKON, which was found 17 years later for his first camera, NIKON (model no. 1), follows the same logic. The difference is that the double “K” (or small ッ) disappears, and the “R” (ル) at the end of the NIKKOR name is replaced by an “N” (ン). Thus, NIKKOR ニッコール becomes NIKON ニコン.
By borrowing the Katakana syllabary to write the names NIKKOR and NIKON, the Japanese writing system used to write foreign words, was the Nippon Kōgaku Kōgyō firm, even back then, showing its desire to make the excellence of its know-how known the world over?
