The fleeting moment
Forever fascinated by images, photographer Jean-Francois Bonhomme’s career began in film, where he worked as a crew technician. But this free spirit, whose photographs are on exhibit now in Athens, soon realized that his independent creativity would never fit in with the collective demands of a film crew shooting on location. A self-taught artist, the Frenchman was also influenced by philosophers Deleuze and Foucault, and he attended seminars by Dumezil and Corbin on the history of spirituality. Photography was to hand: On a trip to Venice, Bonhomme’s companion lent him a camera, and he promptly started recording the ever-changing Venetian skyline. A frequent visitor to Greece in the last 20 years, the photographer has visited Mount Athos five times. An exhibition of black-and-white photographs by Bonhomme is currently on at the Ekfrasi-Gianna Grammatopoulou Gallery in Athens. The show, which opened last night, includes striking portraits of Samuel Beckett, Francoise Sagan, Antoni Tapies, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Alekos Fasianos and Jacqueline de Romilly, among others. Jean-Francois Bonhomme at the Ekfrasi-Gianna Grammatopoulou Gallery, at 9A Valaoritou St, Athens. Running to Oct. 26.
