Photography, between science and art

Presentation of the study and analyses concerning a piece of art, the Lumière Autochromes, shot at the occasion of the exhibition "Light, Color: art and science dialogs", which took place in Paris in 2005.

The advent of digital photography has rendered film obsolete. Photo studios either sell their negatives to salvage the tiny amounts of silver contained in their coating or they just burn them in order to free some space. A team of researchers is trying to collect and save these snapshots of Indian history.

Portrait de Jean Mouette, lauréat de la Médaille de Cristal 2020 du CNRS, assistant ingénieur des métiers de l'image et du son, responsable de la communication de l'Institut d'astrophysique de Paris, photographe et réalisateur de documentaires, spécialisé dans la prise de vues de la couronne solaire et des aurores boréales.

Man has always been intrigued by what he cannot see. This search for the invisible is also of interest to archaeologists. Photographs of objects, of tombs, of sarcophagi, of mummies all leave us imagining what visual elements have disappeared. Nowadays, certain photographic and image processing techniques can make visible that which had disappeared centuries ago. Using black light and then intricate exploitation of digital photography, the walls of the catacombs of Kom el-Shougafa in Alexandria…

A history of the processes used in photography, from its beginnings to the present day, and the way images are formed within a modern emulsion.

The work of three pioneers in scientific imagery: the astronomer Pierre Jules César Janssen (1824-1907), photographer Eadweard James Muybridge (1830-1904) and physiologist Etienne Jules Marey (1830-1904).

During the First World War, French soldiers demonstrate the operation of a German air force camera and then install it on board a SPAD S.XIII type aircraft. The pilot tests the camera on the ground and takes off. When he returns, the device is removed from the plane.

This film draws a very peculiar and poetic portrait of twenty researchers through science pictures from the CNRS images database.

Homage in form of a poem to Japanese photographer Koji Inoue, told in signs language by a deaf actor, Levent Beskardes. He gives us the chance to discover life, works and favourite subjects of this photographer.

Daily life and rituals performed by the inhabitants of Sar Luk, a village in central Vietnam.