Punk project: photographing with punk

Photographic talks

Etienne Renzo began this new series by photographing his Punk friends at festive fairground art gatherings such as "La Grosse Entube". The photographer is no stranger to the Punk movement, having seen it emerge in the 70s, sharing some of its revolts and values in the face of economic, social and cultural inequalities. He then grew up with Punk, remaining attentive to its developments, particularly in rural areas where he himself chose to live a certain relationship with the world. A relationship to which this new series of photographic portrait-interviews contributes, and which is currently being developed for exhibition and publication in 2025.

Values still relevant today
From its very beginnings in 1976-1980, Punk has feigned stupidity and claimed a certain "cultural illiteracy" that contrasts with its power to act. Identified in the collective imagination with an iconoclastic aesthetic and musical genre, Punk is also a protest movement, embodying political and social values ranging from anti-authoritarianism to "Do-It-Yourself". As punk evolved, so did the social fractures it constantly denounced. That's why it's still very much alive and kicking. Not to say critically useful at a time of generalized individualism and neglect of major collective causes.

City punk, country punk
Although the punk movement is largely urban in origin, it is far from having disappeared from the landscape. Particularly in rural areas, where punk culture is increasingly present and vibrant. This is no stranger to the ZAD phenomenon and other forms of concentration. Punks are always at the forefront, with a double face that Etienne Renzo captures so well. On the one hand, there's a jovial, benevolent dimension. Fête oblige! The party as an instance of fun and ritual, as a system of subversion of signs and collective communion. And on the other, commitments corresponding to radical lifestyle choices, some of them visionary in terms of degrowth and anti-consumerism, or even solidarity and mutual aid. In the city as in the fields. It's also the nomadic dimension of punk, which can become sedentary by setting up its truck or trailer in a wood, wasteland or farmyard. Some even buy a plot of land, where they can continue to live out of their truck or caravan, and set up a collective.

Photographic portrait interviews
Etienne Renzo's approach is to show the humanity and relevance of these individual and collective commitments. And to convey their message by bearing witness to a cultural and social reality whose invisibility is, for the majority, desired and sought-after. In a way, their disappearance from society's radar, as a radical and logical option for our times, and not as a disaster or the death of a social project, since theirs is quite different.
It is this deliberate self-effacement that limits the possibility of photographing their collectives and living quarters to a very small number of acquaintances, making these pictures all the more precious.
Etienne Renzo's approach is to give them a real presence, but also a voice, through what he calls "photographic interviews". His project consists in producing a series of photographic portrait-interviews, shot in their usual environment and intended for exhibition and publication. The messages are collected in the form of flash interviews, based on a few questions drawn at random from a deck of cards specially designed for the occasion. Just like fortune-telling. Exchanges and comments are recorded in the moment and then transcribed. Without being particularly associated with the photographic portraits that Etienne Renzo takes of the interviewees in their daily living, working and leisure environments.

A tour of Punk France for a traveling exhibition
Etienne Renzo's integration into the Punk milieu gives him access to a large number of communities formed in networks that are not city-dwellers. This he will potentially extend to the urban context through various squats or communities he also plans to visit. Etienne Renzo began his quest nearly three years ago, and will continue it by visiting the four main regions of France. The aim is to produce a series of interviews in color or black and white, from south to north and east to west. The plan is to produce the first traveling exhibitions in 2025, in order to attract partnerships to publish this nomadic quest. The photo and text post-production work will be carried out as the interviews progress. It will involve a variety of prints and media adapted to the exhibition sites. The aim is to find partner venues likely to support and distribute the work and resulting photographs, for example in the form of a forthcoming book bringing together the texts and images.

For a punk photo!
The publication of a collective work, "Penser avec le Punk "* coordinated by French music critic and philosopher Catherine Guesde, convinced Etienne Renzo that he had to pursue his project. Like the book, which does not seek "to convert this subversive subculture into a philosophical system", Etienne Renzo's photographic interviews aim to extend the scope of Punk to the realm of photography itself. For example, by also showing "punk's fertile links with animal ethics, deep ecology, feminism, or more unexpectedly, spirituality". And why not experiment with a convergence of these struggles in a Punk Photography yet to be invented? Punk is not dead!
*Penser avec le punk" Catherine Guesde - PUF 2022