Ça, c’est la classe internationale. «Nous quittons tous un jour l’école, mais elle ne nous quitte jamais.»
C’est sur cette idée que le photographe anglais Julien Germain, 49 ans, a construit sa série «Classroom Portraits» composée de prises de vue de classes, de primaire, collège et lycée, dans 18 pays. En 2004, lorsqu’il accompagne sa fille pour la rentrée à Northumberland, un petit village du nord-est de l’Angleterre, cela fait plus de vingt ans qu’il n’a pas mis les pieds dans une salle de classe.
Lui revient alors en mémoire sa vie d’écolier. C’est le déclic. «Ready ?» Back to School: Classroom Portraits by Julian Germain. Regardless of where we grew up, most of us spent many of our formative years sitting in a classroom.
Four walls with colorful pictures on them and a teacher at the front. The language, customs and native dress might differ from place to place, but British photographer Julian Germain, who has spent eight years photographing students in classrooms around the world, found the experience of going back-to-school is universal. His collection, which spans Brazil, Nigeria, Yemen, Russia, Taiwan, England, America and others, provides a window inside the classrooms of the world. It also represents a new vision of the traditional class photo. Books of the Year: Julian Germain's Classroom Portraits. Beginning in his native England in 2004, Julian Germain's Classroom Portraits project quickly became international in scope.
In the years since, Germain has visited more than 450 schools in over 20 countries. In 2012, Prestel published over 90 images from the series in a book of the same name, one of our favorites of the year. We spoke with Germain via Skype on his methodology and the similarities and differences of the primary school experience around the world. How did this project take shape? It began in the sense that, when I went to my daughter's classrooms, I realized that I hadn't been in that environment since I was at school, and it brought together some ideas that had been running around in my head for quite a long time about education as a theme for a piece of work. Quiet at the back: classrooms around the world – in pictures. Julian Germain: Photographs of classroom portraits around the world. Behold is Slate's brand-new photo blog.
Like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter @beholdphotos and Tumblr. Learn what this space is all about here. Julian Germain/Prestel. From classroom portraits 2004-2012,byJulian Germainwith a foreword by Dr. Leonid Ilyushin. Photographer Julian Germain’s portraits of school classrooms make for an intriguing archive of what early 21st-century education looks like around the world. Julian Germain/Prestel. Germain did not set out to create an archive of school classrooms but began this project after he first took his daughter to school in 2004. When different projects took him to Argentina and Brazil, he made classroom portraits on the side, and as travel increased, so did his body of work. For the most part, Germain had an easy time gaining access to schools, whether with the help of a parent or teacher or through a cultural, arts, or educational organization that had a link with the school. In general I was there for a whole lesson.
Julian Germain 'Classroom Portraits' Capture Students Of The World In Pictures (PHOTOS) Julian Germain began his "Classroom Portraits" series in northeast England in 2004, but the project's scope has since expanded globally.
"By presenting different pupils, different schools, different year groups, Germain asks questions about contemporary educational practices and social divisions," Archive Magazine wrote of the project in October 2005. "I never tell the students how they should look but ensuring that everybody has a clear view of the camera requires concentration and patience. Each pupil has to be aware of their place in the picture," Germain wrote to Brain Pickings' Maria Popova. Even after eight years, "Classroom Portraits" is still catching the public eye. A user-curated gallery of select photos from the project rose to the front page of social new site Reddit on Oct. 9. Julian Germain Classrooms Portraits project. Julian germain sur Tumblr. Classroom Portraits - School No.63, Kalinynskiy District, St Petersburg. Year 2, Russian. Classroom Portraits - Escuela Secundaria Ruben Martinez, Villeca. Municipio Playa, Havana. Grade 9, screening of 'Can Gamba'
Biographie - in camera. Julian Germain est né à Londres en 1962.
Il s’intéresse à la photographie depuis l’adolescence. Il l’étudia à l’université polytechnique du Trent à Nottingham puis à Londres au Royal College of Art. Il est l’auteur de plusieurs livres, parmi lesquels In Soccer Wonderland (1994) et The Face of Century (1999). Dans son premier livre, Steel Works (1990), il associait ses propres photographies à des documents historiques ou à des images extraites d’albums de famille afin d’étudier les effets de la fermeture des aciéries de Consett, entre autres exemples de la désindustrialisation. Depuis 1995, Julian Germain travaille avec les artistes brésiliens Patricia Azevedo et Murilo Godoy à plusieurs projets photographiques conçus et exécutés collectivement avec des habitants de favelas ou des enfants des rues, qui produisent eux-mêmes leurs images. In Camera présente « Classroom Portraits » une série de Julian Germain.