Raymond Barthes - NO TITLE
Barthes makes polaroids of the island of Réunion, the French overseas department where he has lived since 1980.
The photographs are colourful and of varying nature. He records the mystery of the world around him and transforms the exotic into fantasy by working over the photographs with acrylic paint, pen and other materials that he has available. The number of professional and itinerant photographers on Réunion rose when the island became an administrative department of France. In the 1960s there were studios and photo stores present in almost every city. A new generation of press photographers appeared in the 1970s. Creative photography was practised by talented amateur photographers and shown in various exhibitions.The 1980s and ’90s were characterized by an explosion in cultural and artistic activity. Collections were assembled by institutions and agencies, including the Departmental Archives, for which Barthes has been the official photographer since 1980.
