Relive the work of a conservative photographer as he is known. Ten years after her tragic death, the Parisian Photography Square is showcasing the photographic works of Kate Parry. She is the first daughter of the well-known actress Jane Birkin, who died last July at the age of 76, and John Barry, the composer of the soundtracks for the James Bond films and who won an Oscar for the film Dances with Wolves. This quaint gallery, located on a boat on the Seine River near the French National Library (south-east of the capital), displays around thirty works by the photographer. The exhibition continues until the end of March.
Barry died in 2013 at the age of 46 when he fell from the balcony of his apartment in the upscale 16th arrondissement of Paris. Everything points to it being a suicide. His death deeply affected his mother during the last years of her life. Although his name is better known due to his family connections and early death, the exhibition at the Quai de la Photo proves the artistic value of his work.
Kate Barry has become primarily known for her photographs of celebrities. Although she trained as a seamstress, she began working as a photographer at the age of 28. He has had his photographs published in famous fashion magazines, from Elle and Gala in France to Vanity Fair and Vogue in the Anglo-Saxon world. Thanks to his family connections and personal career, he had privileged access to some of the major movie stars of the 1990s and 2000s.
The look of the sensitive wanderer
The first part of the exhibition displays some photos he took of the Italian actress Monica Bellucci, the French women Catherine Deneuve and Isabelle Huppert, or the American actress and film director Sofia Coppola. They are all distinguished by their creative composition, in addition to a clear somber dimension. The exhibition will appeal to sausage fans and those who want to remember the stars of the seventh art of the early 2000s.
However, the most interesting thing about the show are Barry's landscape photographs. Since the beginning of his career, he has devoted part of his work to making artistic images during his trips abroad (Israel, the West Bank, or Jordan) or within France. These reflect the pedestrian's awake and sensitive appearance. Some stand out for the symbolic nature of an abandoned house amid the desert landscape of the West Bank or the stairs descending onto the beach.
Others have a more melancholy and contemplative charge, for example, with a white bench by the sea in Brittany.
They all show that Kate Barry was a true artist, with a distinguished eye that was extinguished too soon. In addition to this exhibition at the Quai de la Photo, another exhibition is also scheduled for 2024 in another room in Paris. Likewise, they have recently published a book about their work.
A well-deserved memorial to the eldest daughter of actress Jane Birkin, who died prematurely and tragically.
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