End of term, exams over, Leicester starts to empty itself from its hangover students. Two of them decide to leave Britain for a few days in order to enjoy a bit of 'French' air…
 | | Parisian photography exhibition |
We need movies, we need some croissants and "une baguette…pas trop cuite s'il vous plait!" We need bold exhibitions, colourful movies, we need to feed our brain and to forget about everyday life!
Two film buffs like us could not miss the 'Cinémathèque française' and its new museum of cinema.
The exhibition, dedicated to ten photographers from the Magnum agency, takes us by surprise. For once ten artists, reporters such as the Iranian Abbas or Bruce Gilden, disclose how the cinema may have influenced them in their work. It is usually the contrary that happens, but here, moving images meet fixed shots with a peculiar ease. | "Is it an illusion or did I see a picture of the Clock Tower? Another one seems to depict trolleys from Morrison's... Gosh, Leicester is everywhere!" | | Marine Hamon |
As we walk and learn more about the IRA, as seen by Donovan Wylie in parallel with 'Elephant' by Gus van Sant, something catches our intention. Is it an illusion or did I see a picture of the Clock Tower? Another one seems to depict trolleys from Morrison's... Gosh, Leicester is everywhere! Mark Power, an English photographer mostly known for his contribution to the project of The Shipping Forecast for the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4, presents here five pictures of the city of Leicester. He compares his work to a movie byÌýKrzysztof KieÅ›lowski called 'Camera buff' andÌý explains thatÌýhe decided to do just like Fillip, the hero of the movie, to turn the camera and to focus on his own person. Born in Leicester, Power came back when his mother died and wandered on London Road, Weldford Road, empty car parks…ÌýÌý His fuzzy pictures have to be likened to the vagueness of his childhood memories. The spectator can feel this double uncertainty that encompasses the dramatic relationship between the photographer and himself, and between a man and a city he did not see for twenty years.
 | | One of the photos of Leicester |
"Is it the city where I used to be or am I stuck in the past?" - Memories are usually mixed up. The subjectivity of those images contributes to their strength and makes the spectator think about the weight of constructions, buildings on oneself. How very common places such as the Clock Tower can be the trigger of a floodgate of thoughts, painful thoughts. Let alone those shots are a beautiful tribute to his mother, but Power shares a moving and interesting journey. We had to go to Paris to discover how to see Leicester... | 
