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“Mark Grosset Photographies” is a company that was created in 2002, with the
purpose of making Russian photography known to the international public.
Few words
by Mark Grosset
" In 1988, I saw in Paris an exhibition of Soviet photography
organsed by Marie-Francoise George. Curious and intrigued by my
discovery, I joined Marie-Francoise on her next trip to the U.S.S.R.
At that time I was not aware that this was going to become the beginning of
a long, personal photographic adventure with this country.
Meeting Russian photographer Sergei Gitman was a determining factor in my
future research. During my numerous visits throughout the years to Russia,
he made me discover several facets of his country’s contemporary photography.
Meanwhile Andrei Baskakov, president of the Union of Russian Art
photographers introduced me to rich historical photographic archives.
Mark Grosset à Moscou. Photographie Philippe. Charliat. |
Born in 1957, I grew up in the world of photography. My father, Raymond
Grosset, born in 1911, had befriended in the early thirties many famous
photographers such as Brassai, Ergy Landau, Bill Brandt among many others.
After having taken part in WWII in the forces of Charles De Gaulle, he
founded the Rapho photographic agency in 1946. Photographers represented by
Rapho included celebrities in the domain such as Edward Boubat, Robert
Doisneau, Janine Niepse, Willy Ronis, etc.
Many years later, after having worked in several photographic agencies,
along with my sister Kathleen, I became the director of Rapho. Trained by
great figures in photojournalism such as Goksin Sipaioglu and Howard
Chapnick, my wish was to maintain Rapho as an agency where talents from
various generations mixed while at the same time keeping an ethics and
quality that originally made the agency famous.
In November 2001, I left Rapho after having sold it to the group
Hachette-Filipacchi in order to devote myself to an in-depth research in the
history of Russian photography. With the help of the Union of Russian Art
Photographers and André Baskakov, we now work toward the discovery of
Russian photographers and the presentation of their work in the form of
books and exhibitions.
My photographic experience made me aware of the fact that visions evolve
with time, that history is not interpreted now in the same way as it used
to50 years ago, and a country as culturally rich as Russia still hides
treasures that will one day be able to largely contribute to the great
global History of Photography."
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