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Lot Essay
C’est au New York Institute of Photography que Maurice Tabard découvre le potentiel expressif du médium. De retour en France en 1928, il s’engage dans une recherche formelle exigeante et s’impose rapidement comme photographe de mode et de publicité, collaborant avec de nombreuses revues tout en menant en laboratoire ses recherches graphiques, conscient qu’un siècle d’histoire de la photographie nécessite d’en maîtriser à la perfection le bagage technique.Chez Tabard, la surimpression devient langage de l'enfermement :Cette image a été conçue pour un projet de couverture du roman L’Entrave de Colette, dont le titre trouve ici une traduction plastique fondée sur des effets de contrainte et de superposition. Par le montage photographique, Tabard donne forme à une image mentale où l’entrave se déploie à la fois comme contrainte physique et comme pression psychologique, faisant écho aux tensions entre désir, domination et liberté qui parcourent le roman. Il met en scène Marie Glory, actrice du cinéma muet proche des milieux artistiques de l’entre-deux-guerres. L’ombre portée d’une échelle traverse son corps et son visage, ne laissant paraitre que son regard défiant en surimpression celui de l’homme envahissant
It was at the New York Institute of Photography that Maurice Tabard first discovered the expressive potential of the medium. Returning to France in 1928, he embarked upon a rigorous formal investigation and quickly established himself as a leading fashion and advertising photographer. While collaborating with numerous magazines, he simultaneously pursued graphic experiments in the darkroom, fully aware that a century of photographic history demanded complete mastery of the medium’s technical foundations.
For Tabard, double exposure became a language of confinement. This image was conceived as a cover proposal for Colette’s novel L’Entrave (The Obstacle), whose title here finds a visual equivalent through effects of constraint and superimposition. Through photographic montage, Tabard constructs a mental image in which the notion of entrapment unfolds both as a physical restriction and a psychological burden, echoing the tensions between desire, domination, and freedom that run throughout the novel.
The photograph features Marie Glory, a silent-film actress associated with the artistic circles of the interwar years. The shadow of a ladder stretches across her body and face, leaving visible only her defiant gaze, superimposed with that of an intrusive male figure. The resulting image exemplifies Tabard’s ability to transform photographic techniques into powerful visual metaphors, where formal experimentation serves an intensely psychological and poetic vision.
It was at the New York Institute of Photography that Maurice Tabard first discovered the expressive potential of the medium. Returning to France in 1928, he embarked upon a rigorous formal investigation and quickly established himself as a leading fashion and advertising photographer. While collaborating with numerous magazines, he simultaneously pursued graphic experiments in the darkroom, fully aware that a century of photographic history demanded complete mastery of the medium’s technical foundations.
For Tabard, double exposure became a language of confinement. This image was conceived as a cover proposal for Colette’s novel L’Entrave (The Obstacle), whose title here finds a visual equivalent through effects of constraint and superimposition. Through photographic montage, Tabard constructs a mental image in which the notion of entrapment unfolds both as a physical restriction and a psychological burden, echoing the tensions between desire, domination, and freedom that run throughout the novel.
The photograph features Marie Glory, a silent-film actress associated with the artistic circles of the interwar years. The shadow of a ladder stretches across her body and face, leaving visible only her defiant gaze, superimposed with that of an intrusive male figure. The resulting image exemplifies Tabard’s ability to transform photographic techniques into powerful visual metaphors, where formal experimentation serves an intensely psychological and poetic vision.