Artist
Contribution
BS
DENIS ROCHE
Denis Roche was born in Paris in 1937. He died in Paris on September 2, 2015. The author of some thirty books, he produced a very significant body of poetic and photographic work.
His poetic work was collected in 1995 by Éditions du Seuil under the title La poésie est inadmissible (Poetry is Unacceptable).
In 1971, he joined Éditions du Seuil. As a member of the editorial committee, he founded the “Fiction & Cie” collection in 1974, dedicated to contemporary literature (where his novel Louve basse was published in 1976 and Les Dépôts de savoir et technique in 1980) and directed, among others, the “Les Contemporains” collection. Together with his wife Françoise Peyrot, he contributed enormously to the growth and prestige of Éditions du Seuil. He embodied its most innovative, inventive, and daring aspects. Denis Roche was an artist of publishing, who enabled the blossoming and affirmation of many talents. In 2004, determined to retire, he handed over the “Fiction & Cie” collection to Bernard Comment, whom he often accompanied with his generous advice.
He was a member of the Médicis Prize jury until 2013.
He began exhibiting and publishing his photographs in 1978 with Notre antéfixe, which became one of the references for what came to be known as “photo-autobiography.” In 1980, he founded Cahiers de la photographie with Gilles Mora, Bernard Plossu, and Claude Nori. But it was above all with La Disparition des lucioles (The Disappearance of Fireflies) in 1982, a collection of texts on the act of photography, that he attracted the attention of critics. Numerous exhibitions followed: in France, at the Maeght Gallery, the Espace Photographique in Paris, and the Le Réverbère Gallery in Lyon; in 1998 in Brussels, Hanover, Frankfurt, Turin, Naples, Atlanta, and New York; but also in Mexico, Austria, Peru, Egypt, Japan, Syria, etc.
In 1997, he received the Grand Prix de Photographie de la Ville de Paris. In 1999, his work was exhibited at the Rencontres d’Arles.
In March 2001, Gilles Mora dedicated a major chronological monograph to him, published by Seuil in collaboration with the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, entitled Denis Roche – Les Preuves du temps, which traces his entire photographic work since 1971.
In 2007, Seuil published the book La photographie est interminable, an interview with Gilles Mora.
In November 2015, a major exhibition of his photographic work entitled Photolalies, 1964-2010 will be held at the Pavillon Populaire in Montpellier. The exhibition catalog, with a preface by Gilles Mora, will be published by Éditions Hazan.
See more of his photographic work at www.denisroche-photographe.com
Source[Translated from]: Seuil Editions
