Julien Mignot

Before The Night is Over" is in the vein of the series "96 Months", in which Julien Mignot makes a diary by retaining an image and a song from his playlist over 8 years between 2009 and 2016. Seeing in images and music remains a way of life for the artist who continues to collect these moments as he moves. As for "96 Months", the artist entrusts the selected excerpts of this intimate puzzle to the Fresson workshop, custodian of the charcoal printing technique developed by Theodore-Henri Fresson in 1899. The chemical emulsion of the "Charbon-Satin" paper has retained all its mystery since that date. What seduces Julien Mignot, besides the inimitable beauty of these prints, is to let the Fresson family reinterpret their work. The photographer cannot control the print, the development process is kept secret, he cannot attend all the stages of its realization. The artist lets go, he entrusts his memory and rediscovers it, far from the decisive moment. The sharpness of the photograph has disappeared, crushed under the superposition of four to seven layers of pigments. The charcoal print takes us back to the era of pictorialist photogtaphy (1890-1914), inscribing this intimate work in memory. Julien Mignot, himself a collector and keen observer of the contemporary scene, thus pays tribute to the early days of photography. Julien Mignot's work is part of the collections of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the Musée Nicéphore Nièpce, the Leica Foundation, as well as numerous private collections.