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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. Il superpose deux négatifs : une main sombre se confond avec le rebord d’une fenêtre sur lequel repose un journal. Bien qu’ouverte sur les toits en contrebas, la fenêtre ne suggère aucune véritable échappée ; elle renforce au contraire une impression de clôture. Déployée au centre de l’image, la main, élément récurent de son vocabulaire visuel semble barrer l’accès à l’extérieur et confère à la scène une présence troublante. Dans le même mouvement, elle paraît saisir le journal L’Auto, dont la mention « Nouvelle 10 CV six cylindres Donnet » ancre la photographie dans le contexte de l’entre-deux-guerres.
It was at the New York Institute of Photography that Maurice Tabard discovered the expressive potential of the medium. Upon returning to France in 1928, he embarked on a rigorous formal exploration and quickly established himself as a fashion and advertising photographer, collaborating with numerous magazines while simultaneously pursuing graphic experiments in the darkroom. Fully aware that a century of photographic history demanded a thorough mastery of its technical legacy, he continually sought to expand the medium’s creative possibilities.
For Tabard, double exposure became a language of confinement. Here, he superimposes two negatives: a dark hand merges with the edge of a window sill on which a newspaper rests. Although the window opens onto the rooftops below, it offers no real sense of escape; on the contrary, it reinforces an impression of enclosure. Positioned at the center of the composition, the hand, a recurring element in Tabard’s visual vocabulary, appears to block access to the outside world, lending the scene an unsettling presence. At the same time, it seems to grasp the newspaper L’Auto, whose advertisement for the “New Donnet 10 HP Six-Cylinder” firmly anchors the photograph within the context of the interwar period.
It was at the New York Institute of Photography that Maurice Tabard discovered the expressive potential of the medium. Upon returning to France in 1928, he embarked on a rigorous formal exploration and quickly established himself as a fashion and advertising photographer, collaborating with numerous magazines while simultaneously pursuing graphic experiments in the darkroom. Fully aware that a century of photographic history demanded a thorough mastery of its technical legacy, he continually sought to expand the medium’s creative possibilities.
For Tabard, double exposure became a language of confinement. Here, he superimposes two negatives: a dark hand merges with the edge of a window sill on which a newspaper rests. Although the window opens onto the rooftops below, it offers no real sense of escape; on the contrary, it reinforces an impression of enclosure. Positioned at the center of the composition, the hand, a recurring element in Tabard’s visual vocabulary, appears to block access to the outside world, lending the scene an unsettling presence. At the same time, it seems to grasp the newspaper L’Auto, whose advertisement for the “New Donnet 10 HP Six-Cylinder” firmly anchors the photograph within the context of the interwar period.