L'exposition « La photographie en toutes lettres » à la MEP

Maison Européenne de la Photographie

From June 10 to September 13, 2026, the MEP presents a group exhibition bringing together 34 artists from the Collection d'entreprise Neuflize OBC and the collections of the MEP. Conceived as an alphabet primer accessible to all audiences, « La photographie en toutes lettres » weaves unexpected correspondences between the works. Each association opens a door, contradicts the obvious, and invites each visitor to construct their own reading, between intimate reminiscences and shared imaginaries. So many fragments that compose the small stories of the great history of photography, in an experience that is at once playful, free, and tinged with nostalgia. What do adolescence, fairy tales, museums, and even Bourgogne have in common? Created on the occasion of the bicentenary of photography, the exhibition La photographie en toutes lettres is conceived in close collaboration with the Collection d'entreprise Neuflize OBC. It brings together works from this collection, placed in dialogue with those from the collections of the MEP, thus offering a crossed perspective on the richness of these two photographic corpora. Far from any linear history, it unfolds a reading made of associations, encounters, and shifts, where the works dictate their own order, independent of any chronology or hierarchy. Each letter becomes a word, each word summons a set of works that converse with one another in sometimes surprising ways. Here, the Journal LIFE crosses paths with the Kodak ad, Noctambules meet at the Musée, and the Simulacre negotiates with the Vérité. These juxtapositions reveal the identity of the Collection d'entreprise Neuflize OBC – rooted in contemporary creation, yet with roots plunging into the avant-gardes of the 1920s. From Rineke Dijkstra to Bernard Plossu, from Agnès Geoffray to Florence Henri, the numerous artists brought together in the exhibition bear witness to multiple ways of seeing, showing, and thinking about the photographic image. Drawing inspiration from Ways of Seeing by John Berger (1972), the exhibition borrows from this foundational work the idea that "seeing comes before words": we first perceive reality before naming and conceptualizing it. It is this principle that structures the exhibition's path, where shift and enigma take precedence over demonstration. Each room proposes an association that asserts itself before any explanation. Each entry in this lexicon is accompanied by texts, quotations, and anecdotes that illuminate, without ever exhausting, the plurality of narratives carried by photography. La photographie en toutes lettres is part of a long-standing partnership between the MEP and the Fondation d'entreprise Neuflize OBC, a faithful supporter of the institution for nearly thirty years.

Source: Paris Open Data ↗