Augure (Volume Set)
Rodrigue de Ferluc
Published by Rien Ne Va Plus (RNVP)
Augure is a visual essay on news photography from the 1960s and 1970s, created using press clippings from the leading news magazine of the era. The series juxtaposes commercial iconography with that of reportage to offer a reflection on the duplicity of photographic practice and the influence of advertising on our collective imagination.
At a time when French television was still a state monopoly (it officially remained so until 1982) and when radio and print media were the dominant media, the weekly press seemed to many photojournalists a source of professional recognition, offering large-format, color publications. Print media was nonetheless a boon for advertisers, who saw in this large format and the promise of striking reports a fertile ground for advertising.
Combining often violent images of conflict with the no less direct images of the products and precepts of consumerist society, Augure looks back at an ambiguous and crucial era for the future of photography: the idea of photographic objectivity was fading in favor of the recognition of the photographer-author, and the growing presence of advertising shots was patiently molding readers into future consumers.
In this schizophrenic environment, stories of major geopolitical episodes (decolonization, the Vietnam War, May 1968, the Prague Spring, etc.) jostled with the promotion of a DS, an electric razor, or a vacuum cleaner, and the faces of political leaders merged with those of movie stars. The line between information and communication was blurring, and history was now written based on events whose content was difficult to determine whether they belonged to the realm of historical fact, promotional content, or anecdote.
By reinterpreting the visual seduction of a bygone era, Augure plays on visual amalgams to suggest the idea that even today, history is less a matter of framing than of editing. A semiotic puzzle, the series can be read - in the manner of Greek and Roman priests - as a game of interpretation of signs and symbols extracted from the bowels of the press
Hardcover
9.4 x 13 inches
168 pages
Offset printing
2025
By reinterpreting the visual seduction of a bygone era, Augure plays on visual amalgams to suggest the idea that even today, history is less a matter of framing than of editing. A semiotic puzzle, the series can be read - in the manner of Greek and Roman priests - as a game of interpretation of signs and symbols extracted from the bowels of the press
Hardcover
9.4 x 13 inches
168 pages
Offset printing
2025
