"LUCIEN HERVÉ: Flashes of Man in the Modern City", by Lucien Hervé
The Cascais Cultural Center opens to the public the exhibition "LUCIEN HERVÉ: Flashes of Man in the Modern City", dedicated to the work of the Franco-Hungarian Lucien Hervé, considered one of the most important architectural photographers of the 20th century.
Presented in parallel with "Ruth Orkin - The Illusion of Time", this is the second major photography exhibition currently on display at the Cascais Cultural Center. The exhibition is part of an initiative by the D. Luís I Foundation and the Cascais City Council as part of the Museum District's programming.
The sensitivity with which Lucien Hervé photographed architectural projects signed by modernist masters such as Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer is a milestone in the history of photography. It would not be an exaggeration to say that his photographs were important for the projects of these architects, especially Le Corbusier, to become known and admired worldwide.
But, as revealed in the exhibition "LUCIEN HERVÉ: Flashes of Man in the Modern City", his photographic work is not just a remarkable report on iconic buildings. It is also relevant for its aesthetic, artistic, and sociological aspects. Lucien Hervé is one of the rare photographers who combined an artistic and even philosophical vision of photography with Architecture and the 20th-century city. Le Corbusier said that Hervé truly knew how to look at architecture.
Curated by Portuguese architects Isabel Alvarenga and Victor Neves, the exhibition, specially designed for the Cascais Cultural Center, starts from a thematic perspective that investigates the representation of the human figure and the city in Lucien Hervé's photographs, at the intersection of photography, architecture, and sociology. Lucien Hervé, an attentive observer of the concrete, also sought, in all the places he photographed, the presence of the living.
As evidenced by the works on display, Lucien Hervé masterfully recorded the novelty of the modernist city and the impact of what he saw being built, in Brazil and India, for example. But, at the same time, he also turned his camera to the old city that precedes the modern one, with narrow, dark, and unhealthy streets. The urban scale and its relationship with the scale of the human figure, and the sociological dimension of this relationship, are recurring themes in many of his photographs.
The curators note that, in his images, Hervé "achieved a perfect harmony between his humanistic vision, combined with the architect's analytical vision, underlining with the use of light, the geometric shapes, and the textures of the materials, representing in an exemplary way the spatial experience, creating a visual narrative capable of conveying the bodily sensation of space." It is the city seen as a work of art and the modern man as its center and protagonist.
Hervé was part of an impressive generation of photographers who used black and white photography to see and look at the city and its architectures. In the history of photography, his name is mentioned alongside other masters such as Georges Brassaï, Henry Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doisneau, Marcel Gautherot, Thomas Farkas.
More information: +351 214 815 660 | geral@fdl.pt
Organization: Câmara Municipal de Cascais | Fundação D. Luís I | Bairro dos Museus