D'une Main à l'Autre - Commande photographique nationale des 30 ans du titre Maître d'art

Presentation of the national photographic commission for the 30 years of the Maître d'art title

Specific venue and dates available in the first quarter of 2027

The Maîtres d’Art-Élèves Program

The Maîtres d’art-Élèves program, initiated by the Ministry of Culture in 1994 and steered by the Institut pour les Savoir-Faire Français, aims to safeguard and promote rare and exceptional techniques held by fine craft professionals.

Inspired by the Japanese Living National Treasures system, professionals receive the Title of Maître d’Art in recognition of their exceptional mastery and their commitment to transmitting their skills to another professional.

The photographic commission

In 2024, as part of public commissions, three photographers mastering pre-digital processes, techniques, and know-how were selected.

The collective set of three photographic commissions aimed to represent the transmission of know-how within Maîtres d’art-Élèves pairings, in order to build a photographic archive celebrating the 30 years of the program.

The Maîtres d’art – Élèves pairs were identified, in dialogue with the winning photographers, by the Institut pour les Savoir-Faire Français and the Creative Industries Bureau of the Directorate-General for Artistic Creation (DGCA) of the Ministry of Culture.

The works & the photographers

Anne-Lou Buzot produced 10 superimpositions of silver gelatin bromide negatives on glass plates toned with gold salts, enhanced with gold leaf and accompanied by a positive chrysotype print on paper, a process using iron and gold salts.

Sophie Zénon presents 15 large-format cyanotypes on Arches paper, reworked, for 5 of them, by the Maître d’Art or the Élève concerned: gold thread embroidery, chalcography, folding...

Fabien Hamm produced 10 altarpieces, each composed of 6 large-format ambrotypes.

These original creations bear witness to manual know-how in both substance and form; and just like the creations represented within them, these tangible images, true photographic objects, take on their full power when presented in situ.