Diaries of Photographers: Alain Keller & Pascal Maitre
“Diaries of Photographers” brings together for the first time two major names in contemporary photojournalism, Alain Keler and Pascal Maitre. Two authors who have never ceased to tell the world’s story by questioning what they have experienced. Galerie Polka has chosen to juxtapose their respective works, bringing together some forty images by each of them. In black and white for Alain Keler, in color for Pascal Maitre.
On the walls of the Polka gallery in Paris, each photo has its own story : the two authors talk to each other and show us what they wanted to see, from the war in Chechnya to the major cities of “Southern” Africa – Kinshasa, Lagos, Mogadishu. From Northern Ireland to the jungles of Colombia.
Born in 1945 in Clermont-Ferrand to parents of Polish Jewish origin who fled to the Free Zone during the Second World War, and several of whom were deported without return, Keller has spent his life chasing the news. From the conflicts in the Middle East to the United States, with the great parades or demonstrations against the Vietnam War, via Latin America under the pressure of dictatorships. His photographs resemble metaphysical, often melancholy meditations on time. The time that makes history, and the time that makes his own history. This back-and-forth between world and consciousness gives substance to Keler’s images.
Pascal Maitre was born in 1955 into a family of farmers and craftsmen in the Berry region of France. By chance of history, the largest NATO military base in Europe took up residence not far from his home. Thousands of Yankees arrived. One became his uncle by marriage and gave him his first camera, a Rolleiflex. His ticket to the world. India first, then Iran, South America and, of course, Africa, where he produced some of his finest long-form reports. Not forgetting Afghanistan, at the side of Commander Massoud or in front of the majestic Buddhas of Bâmiyân before their destruction by the Taliban. Maitre and Keler first met in 1986 for the “One day in the life of America” project. A friendship and professional complicity were born. Together, they founded the short-lived Odyssée agency before Pascal Maitre joined Cosmos in 1994. In 2018, Alain Keler encouraged him to join the Myop collective, before Maitre joined the ranks of Fondation VII in 2024. Here they are again, this year at Galerie Polka. Together, they tell their stories.
More information on the Polka gallery website.
