Belleville
A Photobook Case Study
Online Talk with Thomas Boivin in conversation with Matthew Carroll
Thursday, September 22, 1PM EST
Free and open to the public
Registration required
Please join us for an online conversation about the making of Belleville, by Thomas Boivin. Published by Stanley/Barker in April 2022, Belleville quickly gained a reputation for Boivin’s immediate and thoughtful street portraits and scenes, and for the elegance of the book’s text-free, quiet design. Published in an edition of 1,000 copies, Belleville is currently out of print. This conversation with Boivin and photographer Matthew Carroll will explore the creative narrative of Belleville and other lessons learned over the course of Boivin’s career.
Click here to register and receive your free Zoom link for the talk.
About Belleville
Since 2010 Thomas Boivin has been making beautiful, contemplative black and white photographs of his Parisian neighborhood and the people who live there. Belleville is a place that is both emblematic of the popular notions of Paris and constantly changing. Set in the eastern part of Paris, it is a multicultural area of the city that attracts artists and those new to France.
Of the project, Boivin writes, “I started to photograph its streets and people as soon as I moved there, and kept photographing for years. Photographing people, above all, was what I found meaningful. Although the photographs hardly depict the city, I find they convey the sensation that I had, walking the streets of Belleville: A mixture of beauty and decay, of joyful moments and sadness, the warm feeling of light and the bitter sweet sensation that one can experience walking around all day, searching for a stranger's eyes.”
About Thomas Boivin
Thomas Boivin (thomasboivin.com) lives and works in Paris. His work is notably found in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, in the Neuflize OBC collection, The Bachelot Collection, the Fondation A Stichting, and the art fund Fond d’Art Contemporain - Paris Collection.
About Matthew Carroll
Matthew Carroll (matthewcarroll.com) is a photographer based in Indiana. He grew up living in both Latin America and in the UK before his family moved to the United States when he was fourteen. Over the last decade, he has also spent a significant amount of time in Southeast China. These formative life experiences engendered a keen interest in people, their culture, and their constructed surroundings. Through portraiture and landscapes, his work focuses on the daily happenstances of everyday life. He is currently working on long-term projects in the American Midwest and in Shenzhen, China.
Thomas Boivin, from Belleville