Touch Ground, a photographic exhibition at the Roullier Endowment Fund
The Roullier Endowment Fund is hosting, until next September, a photographic exhibition of the work of photographer Alain Bujak. In the lobby of the building, six large colored sails unfold, presenting a colorful mosaic representing some facets of agricultural work such as snapshots of French agriculture today.
Alain Bujak, the agriculture in focus
A photographer and author from the Massif Central, Alain Bujak was attracted from an early age by the documentary narrative and photography. It is at the age of 18 that he receives his first camera. It is then the trigger! Photography allows him to work on real scenes, to tell in images and to explore a field of narration. He explores the isolated farms of the Forez mountains, with in the viewfinder of his camera the images of a peasant world on the end.
Living today in Eure-et-Loir, he continues to be interested in this topic by capturing through his lens the landscape of the plain of Beauce, that of a productive agriculture, with its immense plots, its silos and wind turbines. From one world to the other, his work echoes the current questions of the agricultural world, which is affected by environmental and climate issues and practices that are diversifying.
Agriculture at the Roullier Endowment Fund
For Alain Bujak, «agriculture and society represent a whole», highlighted by the exhibition’s scenography. His photographs, printed on large sails offering transparency, permeability on the surrounding city, allow the visitor to immerse himself in these different agricultural scenes. The lightness of the chosen medium also contributes to this by its undulations, like wheat or barley under the wind.
Alain Bujak’s work echoes the general interest mission of the Roullier Endowment Fund: study, promote and foster sustainable agriculture, in France and around the world. Through the contact he has been able to establish for many years with farmers, Alain Bujak has managed to capture, through his camera, the diversity of their profession. Production, animal welfare, tillage, links with territories… are indeed subjects that cross the agricultural sector today, and whose photographer reports with sensitivity and pragmatism as evidenced by the title of this exhibition, «Touch Ground».
In this field, as in many others, we must observe and listen. It is rare to be able to give a simple and quick answer to a complex question. Agriculture is multiple. Every farmer has a story, a reason to do his job. The working conditions are different depending on whether the farm is in the plain or in the mountains for example. This is what I try to express and share through my photos.
Alain Bujak.
