Contact sheet of Agnès Varda in her photographic laboratory, rue Daguerre, 1952 © Agnès Varda Estate – Agnès Varda photographic archives deposited at the Institut pour la photographie

Agnès Varda – My First Life

Film director Agnès Varda (1928–2019) is known for her works Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), One Sings, the Other Doesn't (1977), Vagabond (1985), and Faces, Places (2017). Varda was also a visual artist, and out of three creative lives, her life as a photographer is the least known.

Agnès Varda became a photographer after moving to Paris in the late 1940s. Contact prints from portraits, including commissioned works and photos of friends, testify to her meticulous directing while taking pictures. Varda worked with a Rolleiflex and folding camera. Some of her favorite subjects came from her home neighborhood, the 14th arrondissement of Paris. There Varda captured the area’s charmingly dilapidated streetscapes and its inhabitants.

Varda opened her first photography exhibition on June 1, 1954. The show was held in the courtyard of her home studio at, 86 rue Daguerre, an address that would soon to become mythical. Prints glued to wood panels were hung on the courtyard walls and shutters. Amongst the exhibition visitors were Varda's friends and neighbors; such as artists including Alexander Calder, Hans Hartung, Andrée Vilar, and Valentine Schlegel, along with the photographer Brassaï.

In 2014 Agnès Varda and her daughter Rosalie rediscovered the silver gelatin prints from that debut courtyard exhibition. These prints will now be displayed in their original form at The Finnish Museum of Photography, accompanied by never-before-seen contact prints. The exhibition reveals a visionary, humorous, and sensitive photographer whose images foresee her long career as a filmmaker and artist.

 

Agnès Varda – My First Life has been curated by Carole Sandrin, together with Rosalie Varda and Sherine El Sayed Taih. The exhibition has been made possible thanks to Rosalie Varda, the Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Institut pour la photographie and Institut Français de Finlande.

 

The Finnish Museum of Photography
Large exhibition space

The Cable Factory, The Cable Factory, Kaapeliaukio 3, staircase G, 00180 Helsinki

13.5.–28.8.2022
Images
Address
Kämp Galleria
Mikonkatu 1, 00100 Helsinki
See on the map Kämp Galleria
Opening hours
Mon–Fri 11am–8pm, Sat–Sun 11am–6pm
Tickets
16/6/0 €
Museokortti
Under 18 y.o. free admission
Address
The Cable Factory
Kaapeliaukio 3, staircase G, 00180 Helsinki
See on the map The Cable Factory
Opening hours
Tue–Sun 11 am. – 6 pm. Wed 11 am – 8 pm
Tickets
12/6/0 €, 16/6/0 € from January 1st 2024
Museokortti
Under 18 y.o. free admission