Blousons Noirs (*signed print*)

Presentation for Yan Morvan's KissKissBankBank project:

[translation L'Ascenseur Végétal]

"Apaches of the early twentieth century, hoodlums of the 30s: they were the first bad boys.

With the 50s comes the reign of the blousons noirs (black jackets) on the Parisian pavement and in the suburb. Rock 'n' Roll arrives in France at the same time as Eddie Barclay brings a new format, the single, from the United States. It imposes short and percussive pieces.

For a generation born during the baby boom, it's a milestone. Real or fake rockers are multiplying. And some are formed into bands that scare people at the ballroom parties, or the bourgeois coming out of concerts of the star bands of the 60s.

The loubard, the blouson noir become the figures of a youth that scares France.

If Yan Morvan is recognized as one of the great contemporary specialists of war photography, his first reports were made on these young people in 1970. Then he collaborated with Libération and published his first book, on rockers, Le Cuir et le Baston (Leather and Rumble), the beginning of a long work on gangs that will last nearly forty years. A member of Sipa Press, Newsweek's permanent correspondent, he will cover major conflicts around the world, but will return periodically to the suburbs and report on French gangs.

Blousons Noirs offers us a trip in the 60s and 70s, when black jackets reigned in the streets.

« Les Blousons Noirs, that's my first job! From my beginnings in photography, I started telling stories. The Blousons Noirs, this is the story I lived for 3 years with the marginalized, the hooligans, the fifties, hell's angels, proto hell's angels rather, rockers, etc. It started in 1975. "

"We found the photos that at the time, in the 70s, did not speak, because there was this kind of tyranny of the perfect shot, which today does not mean anything. What is done right or wrong? We have a photographic account of years that are forgotten (...) It's true that it was fascinating. "

"I released this year a book that the press called monumental, Champs de bataille (Battlefields), where there are no characters, everything is done in color, with a 20x25 camera. The Blousons Noirs, it's the opposite: there are only the characters, it moves in all directions, and it is shot with a Leica in black and white. I told myself there was a sign, that we could tell the story in any way, ie tell the story of the war in a static way and the history of society in a dynamic way. "

        -- Yan Morvan "

Texts in the book are in French only.

We are offering here copies of the book with a signed (not numbered) 20 x 25 cm print (see Photos). Please note this is not a limited edition of the book, but "simply" a bundle of the book with a signed print of an image included in the book.

Please note that we are also offering "regular" copies of the book.

192 pages - Hardcover with partial DJ / OBI

La Manufacture de Livres, 2016

Format : 22 x 32.5 cm

*With signed print*

New - Mint condition