Grégory Herpe
Senior Lecturer at Freelance, self-employed
Grégory Herpe is a French photographer born in Paris in 1969 and living in the Netherlands. Placing humanity and our modern societies at the center of his work, the artist has photographed many countries and now exhibits his work worldwide. An atypical journey: Today a photojournalist for the press agencies Polaris Images in New York and Sopa Images in Hong Kong, Grégory Herpe has an unusual career path. A journalist for various magazines in France and England, the artist has collaborated with media such as NRJ and Fun Radio in Paris or RTL/TVI in Brussels. He was also an actor, a profession he learned alongside Francis Huster at the Cours Florent, directed plays in Europe, and published numerous literary works in France as well as in Canada. Now flourishing through photography, the artist delivers a black & white work that he exhibits around the world. A look at humanity: Grégory Herpe's work focuses on humanity. From Europe to Asia through Africa, the artist gazes upon people from all over the world, the organization of our cities and societies, and our relationship with customs and traditions. Among his subjects, we find endangered animals in Africa, IRA soldiers in Belfast, as well as young Cambodian women freed from prostitution or gypsies from southern France. He has also immortalized eminent figures of rock and cinema such as Gérard Depardieu and David Bowie. Regardless of the subject of his photographs, Grégory Herpe strives to deliver a unique vision of the modern world, always articulated around a perspective, a message, and an emotion, most often in black and white and gray. An international reach: An internationally recognized artist, Grégory Herpe has notably exhibited his photographic works at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, as well as in numerous galleries and museums across Europe, from Paris to Zurich, Barcelona, Brussels, Athens, etc., in Boston and San Diego, and also in South Korea and Nigeria. He has received several international awards in New York, Moscow, Barcelona, Genoa, Montpellier, etc. An engaged artist, he regularly collaborates with NGOs to promote their work.
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- Conference : 3500 €
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His conferences
The I.R.A., why has it never ceased to exist? What will Brexit change?
In 2016, I was in Belfast to photograph the political murals on the houses in the Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods. But a chance encounter with one of the secret leaders of the I.R.A. offered me my true subject. Since then, I have returned many times to Belfast to meet, interview, and photograph those who were soldiers of the I.R.A., and those who are part of it today, either in the original movement or in new factions. Around this report and my photographs and testimonies, we will revisit the Northern Irish conflict, from its origins in the 19th century to the troubles of the 60s and 70s, and then to what is happening today. With eloquent archival images and videos to support, we will see how complicated the issue is, between identity, religious, political, cultural, and social wars. But more surprisingly, the I.R.A. has never died and is still organized today, in Belfast or Derry. Why can't this conflict stop and what hope do the Northern Irish see in Brexit? I will answer these questions by introducing you to the secret, heavily armed Belfast that is not visible.
THE MYTHICAL PHOTOS OF PHOTOJOURNALISM
Some press photos have marked and still mark the general public. They remind us of the significant moments in contemporary history, the key moments, through the scene presented, the characters composing these images, the political context, etc. But we often forget or ignore that very often, the public and its opinion are manipulated to convey a message. Thanks to a cropping, for example, which will give more strength to a photo, more weight, and highlight a detail that might have gone unnoticed, and which could change the course of history. Around twenty photographs, the most striking of the 20th and 21st centuries, that I will dissect, analyze, I will demonstrate that an image is not just an image (the portraits of Che Guevara, of Einstein sticking out his tongue, the napalm girl, or this man standing alone in front of the communist tanks in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, etc). We will discover the original framings before manipulation (by the photographers themselves, the press organs, or the secret services of this or that state), and dozens of astonishing, funny, or dramatic anecdotes, unpublished video documents, often providing a new perspective on the political context of the time. Sometimes, the truth is elsewhere...