User:Marinevaslin/Raoul Vaslin

Raoul Vaslin (Nantes, 7 May 1945 - Nantes, 16 August 1985) was a French photographer.

Biography
Raoul Vaslin was born in Nantes, Loire-Atlantique, France, on the last day of the end of the Second World War, 7 May 1945. He passed his childhood and youth in Champtoceaux, the medieval frontier between old Brittany and old France, in Department 49 of Maine-et-Loire, a small village on the south bank of the Loire River, about forty kilometres east of Nantes and ten kilometres west of Ancenis. He was the grandson of the Impressionist painter Paul Deltombe.

Raoul Vaslin started his career in photography in Nice in the south of France in 1965 as assistant to Leo Mirkine. In 1970 he joined Les 30x40, a photography club in Paris, which attracted many professionals like Jean Dieuzaide, Robert Doisneau, Willy Ronis, Léon Herschtritt, Yvette Troispoux.

In 1973 he founded the group 'Epicentre', an association attached to Maison of Culture in Nantes, and developed his ideas of de-centralising photographic art from Paris to the Loire Valley and Brittany regions. In particular, he created a photographic department attached to the Museum of Decorative Arts in Nantes, based in the Château des Ducs de Bretagne (Castle of the Dukes of Brittany) itself under the direction of curator Pierre Chaigneau. It held numerous exhibitions between 1973-76 that showed the work of Franck Roussel, Daniel Lebée, Noel Blin, Georges Guilpin, Jean-Philippe Charbonnier and Eddie Kuligowski. The celebrated photographer Robert Doisneau featured there in January 1975 and Jean Dieuzaide in June of that year. It also showed works by Jean-Claude Gautrand, Marc Garanger, Michel Moy, Frank Horvat and Yves le Masson.

In 1976 Vaslin won second place in the Niépce Prize. In 1977 he was nominated Professor of photography at the Ecole des Beaux Arts (School of Fine Arts) in Nantes. At the same time he pursued many personal photographic projects and began a collaboration with the Rapho Agency. He also supervised photographic classes for the Ministère de la jeunesse et sports (Ministry of Youth & Sport).

Vaslin died prematurely in Nantes on August, 15, 1985, aged only 40. He is survived by two children, a son and a daughter, Erwan and Marine.

An exhibition space in Champtoceaux, was dedicated to him on what would have been the occasion of his 70th birthday on 13th June 2015.

Photographs
Almost all the photographic work of Raoul Vaslin is in black-and-white. He created series on several themes, developing each time a different style and vision.


 * 1966 : Les Antilles, landscapes and portraits made during his military service
 * 1972 : Fanny, portraits (Fanny was his wife)
 * 1973-1974 : Rives et Brouillards : paysages intérieurs, souvenirs du coma et retour à la vie (interior landscapes and visions after recovering from coma)
 * 1975 : Les Photographes, photographers portraits for the photographic department, Museum of Decorative Arts in Nantes,
 * 1976 : Aspect banal et quotidien de la vie d'un village de province, portraits and every day life scenes from Champtoceaux and surrounding villages (Maine-et-Loire) in the 1970's
 * 1977-1978 : Douceur angevine, audiovisual slide-tape project of 2000 images about the Loire River and the vineyards around Nantes
 * 1979-1980 : Formes et Lumières, nudes
 * 1981 : Portraits

Exhibitions

 * Illustrations for a retrospective exhibition on Paul Deltombe (November 1970) (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes)
 * Group exhibitions of Paris Photography Club Les 30×40 (1970 - 1975)
 * « Heureux qui, comme Ulysse… » (November 1973), Galerie Odéon, Paris
 * Artisanat du Val de Loire (1974), Musée Joachim du Bellay, Liré, Maine-et-Loire
 * Milieu rural (juillet 1974), Comptoir Nantais de l'Audiovisuel, Nantes
 * Théâtre de Marionnettes (January 1975), project by the Groupe Épicentre, starring Étienne-Bertrand Weill, Robert Doisneau, Beatrix Von Conta (Maison de la Culture, Nantes)
 * Portraits de Photographes (November 1975), with the Club Les 30 x 40, Centre International de séjour de Paris, Maison de la Culture de Vincennes
 * 20 ans de vie des 30 x 40 par 20 photographes, collective exhibition for the anniversary of Les 30 X 40 (November 1975), Paris
 * Groupe Libre Expression created by Jean-Claude Gautrand (February 1976) : selection of photographs Rives et Brouillards, Narbonne Festival
 * Rives et Brouillards (November 1976), Maison de la Culture de Rennes
 * 150 ans de photographie française (June 1976), Maison de la Culture de la Seine Saint-Denis, with the Bibliothèque nationale de France
 * Du temps et des générations (1976), Du geste au comportement social (1977), Sammeron Festival, Val-de-Marne
 * Rives et Brouillards (April 1977), Galerie Upsilone, Nantes
 * Rives et Brouillards (November 1977), Centre Culturel de Longwy, Herserange
 * Rives et Brouillards (1978), Art Gallery of Château des Hayes, Beaufort-en-Vallée, Maine-et-Loire
 * Formes et Lumières (November 1980), Centre Culturel Roger Portugal, Nantes
 * Aspect banal et quotidien d'un village de province (April 1981), Studio Ethei, (boulevard Saint-Germain) Paris
 * Aspect banal et quotidien d'un village de province (July-August 2011), Maison du Tourisme, Champtoceaux, Maine-et-Loire
 * Raoul Vaslin, un humaniste redécouvert (14-29 July 2012), Galerie Peleyre, St. Lanne (Madiran), Hautes-Pyrénées
 * Selected choice from the "Aspect Banal " series (27 May - 2 June 2013) for the exhibition « Territoires, le singulier, l'universel », 35e édition of "Mai du Livre", Tarbes, Hautes-Pyrénées
 * Raoul Vaslin, invité d'honneur du printemps des talents (May 2014), Rectorat de Nantes, Loire-Atlantique
 * Selected choice from the "Aspect Banal " series  (26 April 2015), 20th anniversary of Photographic Fair, Photo Club de Varades, Loire-Atlantique
 * Selected choice from the "Aspect Banal " series (August - December 2015), La Cerise sur le Gâteau, Ancenis, Loire-Atlantique
 * "Formes et Lumières" (May 2017) Maison Bonchamps, Varades, Loirauxence, Loire-Atlantique
 * Selection of gelatin-silver prints made by Daniel Lebée for the Photo-ArgentiK Festival (6-16 July 2018), Champtoceaux, Orée d'Anjou, Maine-et-Loire

Awards and honors

 * 1972 :	Selection for Antoine Cordesse Prize, Rencontres d'Arles : La Maison de l'homme.
 * 1974 :	8th rank for the Prize of Fédération internationale de l'art photographique
 * Juin 1975 :	Grand Prize of the Paris Photography Club Les 30 x 40 :  Brouillards (fogs)
 * 1976 :	2nd Rank for Niépce Prize : Le Laboureur

Collections

 * Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris – Cabinet des estampes (about 60 photographs, 1974-1975)
 * Château des Ducs de Bretagne, Nantes (9 photographs, 1975)
 * Musée Réattu, Arles (3 photographs, 1972)
 * Société Française de Photographie, Paris (collections of Paris Photography Club Les 30 X 40)