Denis Brihat - Silver prints metamorphosis
It was after his first Parisian successes that Denis decided in 1958 to settle in the Luberon, above Bonnieux. From 1958 to 1968, Denis worked in the hamlet of Les Claparèdes where he could develop his black and white photos. Denis says that at the time, he liked to shoot big pictures so that he could hang them on large white walls, some of them longer than two metres. It was not uncommon at the time that he went down to the fountain of Bonnieux, his photos rolled under the arm to come rinse his prints.
It was in 1968 that Denis learned to switch from black and white to colour. If his photos are above all silvery, it is with his talents of chemists that he used the metallic salts to "get rid" his images to the color... If Denis has long taught, transmitted his manufacturing secrets, he considers that for himself, he learned on the job, and that it is through tests, notes and analysis, that he knew to become the undisputed master who finally, at its advanced age is finally recognized by the profession.
For if during the last 60 years when Denis developed his art, success came first from his pairs and friends, he never sought fame or worldliness, preferring by far his meticulous work in his laboratory to translate the beauty of nature...
Certainly Denis exhibited in 1965 at the Musée d'art décoratif in Paris and then at Moma in New York in 1967 with Pierre Cordier and Jean-Pierre Sudre, he certainly animated during the first years the meetings of Arles, but he knows the success of the general public in a progressive way. It is perhaps also what allows him to continue to progress in his work and he has fun to say from time to time, while remaining faithful to his values...
"... if my subjects sometimes seem humble, they are nevertheless a universe and, after all, is there humility for beauty? My role is to observe this beauty and to be, if possible, the "revealer"