Pyrenees: Spain of Dieuzaide father and son, an exhibition for the entire border foothills in Saint-Gaudens

Alongside the beautiful book "Espagne(s)" published by Cairn, an exhibition retraces the travels to Spain of Jean and Michel Dieuzaide thirty years apart. A father-son dialogue magnified by the film and the white walls of the depths of Spain

They talk to each other, they size each other up, perhaps even size each other up. But above all, they converse. From the 1950s onwards, and since the 1970s for the other, Jean and Michel Dieuzaide have cultivated a family love for Spain. This two-part work is the subject of a rich book published by Cairn, whose graphic success we mentioned at the beginning of the summer (1).

The counterpart to this beautiful book is hung throughout the second semester on the walls of the picturesque Museum of Arts and Figures of the Central Pyrenees in Saint-Gaudens (31) . A short hop via the A64 motorway, the museum is barely five minutes away. The exhibition is free and fun.

There we discover the iconic photographs of the master Jean Dieuzaide, contemporary and friend of Doisneau. This "Gypsy Woman with Child" obviously shows a woman in ceremonial dress breastfeeding her baby while proudly looking at the opposite horizon and the sunlight. "The Gypsy Woman of Sacromonte" was immortalized in 1951 in Granada. A little further on, it is a child with child who responds to this photograph a few years later, her gaze less laughing and more dark.

Both bathe in the same light, the same contrasts, the same amniotic fluid

Michel Dieuzaide has followed in his father's footsteps without having to be ashamed of his output. A documentary filmmaker and photographer like his father, he fell in love with bullfighting and flamenco, as his polished images of these two consubstantial arts of the peninsula demonstrate.

"To differentiate them at first glance, the reader will need a great deal of talent," writes Jean-Paul Dubois, a Toulouse-born Goncourt winner, in the preface to the book published by Cairn. "Both are bathed in the same light, the same contrasts, the same amniotic fluid." More than an atavism, it's a lineage.

Everything that makes Spain is gathered in this play of mirrors. Its immaculate white walls, its crushing sun that shines more than ever through the contrast of black and white, its Christian rites... Father and son compose the same music made of infinite landscapes and severe faces.

Take this officer photographed in profile by Michel Dieuzaide during Holy Week in Seville in 1984. He looks like a character from the album "Tintin and the Picaros"!

The exhibition features relics by photographer Jean Dieuzaide and old posters that will delight aficionados. It is also fun with two animations that will attract young audiences.

A very accessible puzzle where the goal is to reconstruct the photo of the gypsy girl and the child, as well as the reconstruction of an old-fashioned film development lab. Children will thus be able to discover all the steps that went into printing the photos they have just seen. A salutary anachronism in the age of triumphant Instagram and AI.

Until December 31, at the Museum of Arts and Figures of the Central Pyrenees, 35 boulevard Jean-Bepmale, in Saint-Gaudens. Free admission. Information at 05 61 89 05 42. Wednesday to Friday from 2 p.m. to 5:15 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

(1) “Our Spain(s)”, photographs by Jean and Michel Dieuzaide, preface by Jean-Paul Dubois, Éditions. Cairn, 168 pages, €28.45.