Photography is generally considered to be able to faithfully reproduce the real. The most common uses of photography as a medium are for its reproductive qualities: illustration, journalism, science, etc. Photography, as an instrument of memory, comparison and knowledge-sharing also records our memories and, in doing so, marks the passage of time; it has been part of our everyday lives since its invention and digital technologies have ramped up its importance to the extent that it is now omnipresent.
 
These affirmations tend not to apply to the output of photographer Laurence Leblanc. Her work takes us to Africa, Cambodia, Brazil and Cuba where she introduces us to children, nuns, dancers and musicians. However, we do not get to know them or the countries they live in as her motivation, down the years, has not been to record in order to document, but instead to grasp the invisible, to capture that which cannot be recorded in a photograph: the imperceptible thread that links humans, both to one another and through the ages.
 
 Everywhere she goes, she is. Laurence Leblanc absorbs her surroundings, connects with the locals and lives alongside them. She queries, understands, learns. She stays for protracted periods, and often returns to the same places. She shoots instinctively, her work is subjective and benevolent as she seizes the shot delicately, with no premeditation. The photographic act is set off by a feeling, the photographer collects the result.
 
Back in her studio, time tends to stretch. She takes time, with her photos, her contact sheets, her working prints. Another form of silent, solitary absorption occurs. Before she shares them, the photographic images that will feature a lived experience must stand out, they must provoke questions, enquiries and doubts.
 
Laurence Leblanc speaks of capturing the inner energy and emotion that we all share. It is quite the challenge as it involves depicting that which is intangible. But she does. Leblanc brings her uncompromising auteur’s gaze to bear through this prism alone. The photographs she chooses to show are emotional echoes of the ties that bind people, things and the world.
 
This exhibition voluntarily blends different series, from Rithy, Chéa, Kim Sour et les autres  (2003) to the hitherto unseen Du soin  (2021) as for Laurence Leblanc, it makes no sense to identify groups, establish a chronology or outline a theme; her work is an ever-renewed attempt to keep that which is invisible but still subsists, alive and perceptible, despite everything: the tenuous, fragile but essential ties that bind.
 
Curator:
Sylvain Besson, musée Nicéphore Niépce
 
The museum would like to thank La Société des Amis du Musée Nicéphore Niépce and Canson.

The prints in this exhibition were produced in the laboratory of the Musée Nicéphore Niépce on Canson® Infinity Baryta Photographic II 310 g/m² paper and Canson® Infinity Rag Photographic 210 g/m² paper.