EVENT DETAIL

On the occasion of the publication by Éditions de Juillet of Irène Jonas's new book, Bouquinistes de Paris – The last mohicans, José Nicolas is offering an exhibition at the Atelier/Galerie Taylor-Paris dedicated to the photographer, whose work he supports. work since 2021, and a signing of his new work. Prints from this series, never exhibited, will be accompanied by painted photographs which will take collectors and enthusiasts on a journey from the shores of the Baltic to Russia, from Istanbul to Rio, from Breton beaches to funfairs. Irène Jonas is a photographer and sociologist. She bears witness to our societies in her texts and her studies and adds free photography, which moves away from documentary, but always anchored in a reality, or in the archeology of a reality, of its memory, of these traces, impressions, colors and emotions that remain in memory. Before the pandemic, she walked along the Parisian banks of the Seine until she met a small group of second-hand booksellers on the Quai de la Tournelle. Resistant to the digital wave of publishing, to its dematerialization, these ardent defenders of books have accepted Irène Jonas into their world. They allowed him to be a privileged witness to their business, the passion that drives them and the bond they create and maintain with readers, collectors, but also simple passers-by or tourists. While their professional existence was more than threatened by the drift hunters organization of the Olympic Games – in part – on the Seine, she continued and completed her work, always linked to them. Over the seasons, she has captured the different stages that mark the days of second-hand booksellers, from collecting books to interacting with customers and ending with sale. Without forgetting the waiting, the solitude, the off-peak hours, the proximity of car traffic and the “postcard” setting of the Seine in the background, of the historic Parisian monuments. Irène Jonas also fixes the choreography of the customers' bodies in their attitudes of reading or searching for a title in the boxes, or even in the excitement of holding a desired work in their hands or discovering an author by chance as they wander around.