A Close-up of Love and Marriage
Marriage is one of life’s most photographed events. In the 1900s, having initially been left in the hands of professional photographers, it became a subject of choice for family members wanting to showcase their talents as amateur artists.
Sitting on the borderline of Art Brut, the exhibition explores the emotional journey amidst vibrant joy and melancholic sadness and is a gateway to family memories and legends.
Previously, the vocation of photography was to leave evidence of a ceremony, but today we are witnessing its highly codified staging by young spouses at their weddings in order to control the photographic traces published online. “FOREVER, a Close-up of Love and Marriage” raises a new question: what is the place and destiny of amateur photographers at weddings? In a time of selfies and mass sharing via hashtags, the wedding photo possesses something special. It is the one that is kept, printed, and enlarged.
The Tiny Gallery has gathered thirteen contemporary artists of ten nationalities with a passion in common for old photographic techniques. Since the early days of photography, amateurs have used these historical techniques, such as salted paper prints, cyanotype, or albumen, to document everyday life.
For this project, Olivier Guyaux, curator and collector, has expanded his historical collection by gathering original wedding photos from Belgium, France, former Yugoslavia, Ukraine and the United States.
Each artist made their contribution using their personal approach. The Tiny Gallery is a research laboratory which operates at the boundaries of the intimate with regards to its subjects, its artistic journeys, and its encounters with archives. Aesthetic, instantaneous, kitsch, and inclusive, the broad international route is enriched with images collected by the artists in a deeply personal, family-oriented approach.
Never anonymous or innocent photography