The South African photographer Guy Tillim (born in 1962) is the winner of the 2017 HCB Award, attributed with the support of Fondation d’entreprise Hermès. With this new series Museum of the Revolution, he observes the effects of decolonisation within the major capital cities of Africa.

His extensive wanderings have in recent years led him to Johannesburg, Durban, Maputo, Beira, Harare, Nairobi, Kampala, Addis Ababa, Luanda, Libreville, Accra, Abidjan, Dakar and Dar es Salaam.The avenues, named and renamed, act as silent witnesses to the ebb and flow of political, economic and social changes. They have become “the museum” of the two major revolutions that have emerged in these countries in recent decades: from colonial regimes to post-colonial regimes, borrowing from socialist practices, then from African nationalism to capitalistic states. Guy Tillim has received many awards, among which the Higashikawa Overseas Photographer Award in 2003, the Daimler-Chrysler Award for South African Photography in 2004 and the Leica Oskar Barnack award in 2005. He was the winner of the photography residencies at the Musée du Quai Branly in 2015.

Guy Tillim’s work has been the subject of several solo exhibitions such as those at the Centre photographique d’Ile-de-France, the Serralves Foundation in Porto or the Peabody Museum at Harvard. The artist’s works have also been presented in group exhibitions, including Africa Remix, Contemporary Art of a Continent, at the Centre Pompidou in 2005, at the Biennale de São Paulo in 2006 and at documenta 12 in Kassel in 2007. The exhibition at the Fondation HCB is accompanied by a book published by Mack Books.

For the first exhibition in the gallery dedicated to its Collections, the Fondation HCB is showcasing one of the most substantial parts of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s work: France.

This first opus, dedicated to the 1930s, reveals the complete carefreeness, spontaneity and freedom then enjoyed by the young man, trained in drawing and literature. Then, come his first steps towards political commitment in a country undergoing profound change, marked by the workers’ movement and the victory of the Popular Front on June 14, 1936.

In the throes of social tension, workers joined forces under the name “APO” (Amateurs Photographes Ouvriers), and used Leica cameras to cover the proletarian movement. The group received the support of the AEAR (Association des écrivains et artistes révolutionnaires), of which Henri Cartier-Bresson was a member. He supported and was actively involved in this turning point which marked the emergence of documentary and social photography.

It was in this French cultural crucible that Henri Cartier-Bresson discovered and experimented with photography, gradually developing a style of his very own, that of l’imaginaire d’après nature (imagination from nature). Parallel to his extensive travels (Italy, Spain, Mexico), he developed a strong interest in film-making, which he experimented, in particular, with Jean Renoir. This art did not bring him as much excitement as he had hoped, and he decided to focus solely on photography.

The company of the Surrealists, learning painting with André Lhote, his curiosity for a mutating society and his commitment all contributed to forging the spirit of this man who stated: “photography is halfway between the art of a pickpocket and that of a funambulist”.