The biggest supermodels have posed for her. Far from being reduced to a fleeting image, their presence in her photographs is intense and seems strangely enduring. It must also be said that "each of her fashion photographs is a portrait."
For Paolo Roversi, each photograph must, in fact, be a portrait, explains Sylvie Lécallier, the curator of the exhibition dedicated to him at the Palais Galliera: “By encouraging the model to abandon conventional poses in favor of a state of surrender, Roversi does not give him a stereotypical role to play: he poses as he is, inhabiting the space through the simplicity of his presence. Like Nadar, Roversi seeks ‘the most familiar, the most favorable, the most intimate resemblance.’” 1Taken in the studio in daylight, with a very long exposure time, Roversi's portraits, like Nadar's, possess an intensity that flash photography cannot achieve.
This intensity, which shines through in the eyes of his models – such as the incandescent gaze of Natalia, Kate, or Kirsten – stems from what the Italian photographer explained in 2020 on France Culture radio. 2, far from having "never wanted to tell", relies entirely on the subject and his sensations. "In a photograph, I seek to unveil the mystery of beauty."to go "Beyond the surface of things, beyond the body, inside, to discover a little more of the truth of the subject".
Beyond the surface
Born in 1947 in Ravenna and living in Paris since 1973, having worked for the most prestigious magazines (ELLE, Depeche Mode, Vogue Luncheon…) and the greatest fashion designers, notably Yohji Yamamoto, Romeo Gigli and Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons, Paolo Roversi sought this timeless beauty throughout his career. Captured in the studio, with Polaroid and large-format cameras, in subtle effects of shadow, light and blur, it reveals itself, according to him, as an “absent presence.” 2 which is what makes photography so mysterious and miraculous.
Cultivating a "dreamlike aesthetic" 3Roversi plays with the whiteness of milky skin (like Polaroid emulsion) and, through the use of filters, splashes of color that enhance faces and hands (campaign for Yamamoto Fall/Winter 1985-1986 or Alexander McQueen 2021). The hybridization of color and black and white (a mixed process discovered by accident in 1990) or the use of flashlight lighting (for the Comme des Garçons Spring/Summer 1997 collection) contribute to this same aesthetic, as does the use of blur which, from the mid-1980s onward, gives his images a "vaporous, timeless, evanescent quality, like in a dream." 3...
- Françoise Heilbrun, in the exhibition catalogue Nadar, the creative years: 1854-1860 shown at the Musée d'Orsay in 1994.
- Quote from an interview broadcast on the show The Big Table on France Culture on October 14, 2020.
- Anne de Mondenard, in the exhibition catalogue.
France paris
“Paolo Roversi”
Palais Galliera – Paris Fashion Museum
10, avenue Pierre-Ier-of-Serbia, Paris 16e
From 16 March to 14 July 2024
