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Burnt photograph following the fire of the studio on the 6th November 1948.
Perhaps Jahan's most surprising series in the photogram technique is the Surrealist Herbarium of 1945. Unlike Man Ray, Jahan returned to the scientific origins of the photogram: copies of grasses and other plants superimposed on photographs. Unexpectedly, the fire in his flat - and studio - in 1947 completed the works. The photographs in the Herbarium were partially burnt, creating a new plastic dimension of the image. Although the fire was an accident, it does not deny its contribution to Jahan's work - chance always plays a fundamental role in surrealism, after all. It is one of its fundamental elements. With the fire, the Herbarium becomes even more surreal.
Burnt photograph following the fire of the studio on the 6th November 1948.
Perhaps Jahan's most surprising series in the photogram technique is the Surrealist Herbarium of 1945. Unlike Man Ray, Jahan returned to the scientific origins of the photogram: copies of grasses and other plants superimposed on photographs. Unexpectedly, the fire in his flat - and studio - in 1947 completed the works. The photographs in the Herbarium were partially burnt, creating a new plastic dimension of the image. Although the fire was an accident, it does not deny its contribution to Jahan's work - chance always plays a fundamental role in surrealism, after all. It is one of its fundamental elements. With the fire, the Herbarium becomes even more surreal.
2010 : Pierre Jahan. Libre cours, Musée Réattu, Arles (rétrospective). 2014 : Pierre Jahan. A l’ombre des rois, lumières et jeux de la photographie, Musée d’art et d’histoire de Saint-Denis (rétrospective). Work reproduced on the cover of the catalogue and in the exhibition.