Many believed they knew everything about Agnès Varda (1928-2019), given the numerous exhibitions and retrospectives held over the past decade. However, the fame the artist achieved – first as a filmmaker and later as a visual artist – ended up overshadowing a major facet of her work: her beginnings as a photographer. At Paris's Musée Carnavalet, an original and delightful exhibition, centered on Varda's relationship with Paris and featuring 130 vintage prints along with previously unseen documents from her archives, offers visitors a chance to discover her singular and free-spirited vision, blending fantasy with a much darker strangeness.
From 1951 until her death, Varda lived at the same address, 86 Rue Daguerre (a fitting name for a photographer, Louis Daguerre having invented a photography process in the 18th century), in the 14th arrondissement. Rather than an apartment, she convinced her father to buy her what was then a dilapidated place, unheated and with outdoor toilets: two shops and their outbuildings, separated by a courtyard. The exhibition recreates and brings to life this picturesque place, which became both her home and a central element in her work – serving as her atelier, a photography studio for friends and actors, a filming location, and even an exhibition space.
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