Guardian of time (Signed)

Stéphane Duroy
Guardian of time (Signed)

Photographs: Stéphane Duroy

Text: Roland Angst, Christiane Kuhlmann

Publisher: Only Photography

139 pages

Pictures: 132

Year: 2012

Comments: Clothbound. 325 x 240 mm. Reproductions divided between Cibachrome and black & white. Text in english, french and german. Limited and signed edition of 200 copies. Scarce in very good condition.

"I had my first encounter with the works of Stéphane Duroy by way of the photo book medium - as was also the case with the work of many other of his colleagues. Actually, at first sight his thin volumes of images and, usually, texts he has written himself are anything but spectacular ; their covers exhibit nothing but dark unicolour shades and typographically unostentatious titles. Yet is is precisely their plainness that makes them stand out from the crowd of photo book covers attempting to outdo one another with "spectacular" images.

All the more did the photos inside the covers suprise and excite me, already at first sight : the transitions from black and white to the characteristic reduced palette of Cibachrome - always exactly when the subject demanded it.

The empathy with the portrait subject, which has remained constant form thirty years. The consistently discernible relationship to time, which can only be explained by Stéphane Duroy's profound know-ledge of and persistent preoccupation with history.

The photographer's gaze - often directed towards the marginal zones of society - never pushes its way into the foreground in speculative or sensationalist manner. It remains affectionate, regardless of whether it has industrial landscapes, unemployed persons or the photographer's own daughter in front of its lens.

Although as a member of the Agency VU he worked for weeklies like Stern, ZEIT and Spiegel for many years, his images far transcend the purely documentary. Again and again, - wholly in the tradition of his famous compatriot Henri Cartier-Bresson - Stéphane Duroy manages to capture the "decisive moment" with his camera.

On the occasion of the only photography show last December in Paris, a number of the visitors - including many photographers - bemoaned the fact that the French photographers of the post-war generation are far too little known outside their country. An inexplicable state of affairs in view of France's history as the land of photography's origins, of the most important photography fair (in Paris), and of innumerable institutions preoccupied with photography. Whatever the reason for this lack of presence, I am extremely delighted to help bring the world a bit closer to Stéphane Duroy and French photography with the publication of this book." Roland Angst