In the reserves of the Nicéphore Niépce Museum, in Chalon-sur-Saône, there is a star. Marilyn Monroe, more beautiful and younger than ever, hides from view, wrapped in bubble wrap. The photo of the actress, immortalized by Eve Arnold in 1955, lying on her bed, is one of the highlights of the Fnac collection, which the museum has hosted since 2014. For the moment, the sleeping beauty returning from an exhibition at the Musée de l’ image, from Epinal (Vosges), titled “Icons”, is stored framed in the museum’s packaging workshop, before leaving for a hanging at the Salon de la Photo in October in Paris.
Because this year, Fnac, which celebrates 70 years, organizes several events around its rich collection (1,700 images), including the launch of a beautiful book, Views: A century of photography, from Brassaï to Martin Parr, at Gallimard. Next to Marilyn, the portrait of a very young Johnny Depp, also removed from the collection, is carefully packed by two employees, among rolls of tape and foam sheets.
Housed in the former Hôtel des Messageries royales, an 18th century buildinge century nestled on the banks of the Saône, the Nicéphore Niépce Museum, created in 1972, bears the name of the inventor of photography (1765-1833), who was born in Chalon. From the window of his house, in 1827, this craftsman took the first photograph in history, a grainy heliograph called Fat’s point of view. Unable to exhibit the original, kept at the University of Texas, the museum offers visitors, in a room entirely dedicated to its creator, a digital version of the object.
“There is a rotation of works”
But the institution, led by historian Brigitte Maurice-Chabard, aims to be anything but past-oriented. “Our subject is photography, regardless of medium, explains Sylvain Besson, Director of Collections. We have both amateur photography, press commissions, magazines and digital images. Because Niépce also invented photogravure, which allowed the diffusion of images. »
Since its creation, the museum has set itself the mission of receiving photographic funds in storage or donation and keeps around fifty of them, carefully inventoried. Compared to the table of images kept at the museum, that of Fnacul, arrived in 2014, represents “a drop of water”, smiles the curator: 1,700 prints, out of a total of nearly 4 million. It is distributed in the reservations, but also on the walls, along the entire permanent route. Which is permanent in name only. “As the photograph deteriorates in the light, there is a rotation of the works, says Sylvain Besson, every three to six months depending on light intensity. For the visitor, it is never the same museum. »
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