The BnF honors Denis Brihat, an essential figure in the history of photography in France. Photographer “alchemist”, Denis Brihat has developed, in 70 years of career, an extraordinarily sensitive work. Promoter of “creative” photography and tireless actor of the transmission of silver know-how, he is also one of the founders of the Rencontres d’Arles. He has just donated to the BnF some hundred iconic pieces exceptionally presented this autumn.

Denis Brihat was born in Paris in 1928. Winner of the Niépce prize in 1957, he paves the way for a generation of photographers-authors. He is one of the first to advocate for photography to be recognized as an artistic expression in its own right, thanks to well-made prints, numbered in limited numbers and often in large format.

In 1958, the photographer abandons the capital to lead a frugal life and close to nature in the Luberon. He made remarkable meetings like Pablo Picasso or Fernand Léger with whom he participated in the Espace Group, bringing together artists and architects with the same ambition, that of the unity of art.

Regularly invited to the United States, he is one of the first French photographers exhibited by John Szarkowski in 1967 at MoMA in New York, with his friends Jean-Pierre Sudre and Pierre Cordier.

Denis Brihat is also a fervent supporter of a democratic appreciation of photography. He participates in the exhibitions of the Agathe Gaillard Gallery, one of the first photography galleries in Paris, opened in 1975. He is one of the founders of the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie festival in Arles with Lucien Clergue, and is also adventure of the Water Tower in Toulouse with Jean and Michel Dieuzaide.

Find further information about timings and location here.