Philippe ENQUIN

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July 2022

Le Figaro, March 15, 2021
Mathilde Munos - Le 5/7 - France Inter

Containment in 140 photos, with Philippe Enquin

Tuesday, March 16, 2021, by Mathilde Munos - France Inter

Section title: Arts et essais N°52Published by: Christine Le Garrec February 26, 2021Content: This is a cover for a section dedicated to documentaries, arts, and essays. The image on the right shows the cover of a book entitled "De mon balcon: Chroniques d'un confinement parisien" by Philippe Enquin, with a preface by Alain Kleinmann.
Captured during the confinement of spring 2020, under the mischievous and benevolent gaze of an 85-year-old photographer, the shots in this album bear witness to an unusual spring... Shops closed (at least the "non-essentials"...), the streets of Paris, empty and finally breathable, where birds frolic and nature reclaims its rights without the polluting farting of traffic... A few workers to avoid chaos, nonchalant passers-by enjoying the spring sunshine, lovers embracing, people in a hurry, laden with their supply of toilet paper (one of the great mysteries of confinement, not yet solved!), people at their windows chatting with their neighbors and applauding their carers every evening to pay tribute to them... The homeless, more visible in streets that return them to their solitude, punctuated only by the kind gestures of empathetic passers-by and the passing of charity watchers... Sportsmen and women, cyclists, readers absorbed in their books, children who rediscover, for a moment too short, the carefree spirit of a new-found freedom...

Each photo, in deep, luminous black and white, recounts these small moments of an unprecedented daily life, in "sparks of humanity", commented on with as much humor as tenderness. Philippe Enquinn's photographic report restores our faith in a humanity that, if capable of the worst, can also be capable of the best: by capturing from his balcony the outbursts of fraternity that also flourished in this strange spring, he puts a veil of gentleness over the atmosphere of gravity that weighed on us all during this anxiety-inducing period. I couldn't speak more highly of it than François Morel who signs the laudatory preamble to this "testimonial" book. His photos are not in the air of the times, they are in the breath of the moment, when life does not resign itself to giving up, when humor becomes an act of courage, when a kind look becomes the most beautiful weapon to resist gloom". Thank you, Mr. Enquin, for offering us this anthology of slices of life as moving as they are hopeful for a better world...

ÎLE-DE-FRANCE & OISEL actualité de vos départementsFrom his balcony, he photographed life during the confinementPhilippe Enquin took over 3,000 snapshots. The 85-year-old retiree has turned them into a self-published book.HE LIVED near three large squares, the crossroads of demonstrations and festive processions, in the heart of Paris usually awash in bars and terraces. During the lockdown, which ends on Monday, he has taken up residence behind his desk on the 8th floor, boulevard Voltaire. Philippe Enquin layers his features and silhouette. Filing has never been so much a collective act. Illuminated by daily Parisian life in this very special atmosphere, he photographed the world. A singular experience. A look at the world and its inhabitants through confinement, which made him a recognized artist." F... you Covid-19!" seems to echo from the facade of his apartment building, and he has turned it into a book in the image of a hutch of inhabitants, between reason, poetry, order, concern and skinning." That period was an exceptional light. Faith is very beneficial, there was no pollution, an almost spiritual atmosphere of silence. PHILIPPE ENQUIN**" This first confinement embodied the memory of the house, a great human epic that for all of us would bring us back to the singularity of what we experience in life, keeping our spirits up despite the hope. The emotion is still available, and in any case, it's a period I would never have expressed. During those two months, from the windows of the building, thousands of faces approached me from the street to express their pain. I was able to photograph a man leaning against a building bar, to touch him with a glance, and the streets of the capital and the balconies, filled with love, seemed reborn under my gaze. Philippe has poured his heart into this book, and each chapter is a revelation. I've seen, heard and felt this story; it's ours, yours. The confinement passed by, in an impressive silence. In the spring, as the sun entered our hearts, conversations at the Café du Commerce were no longer forbidden, spring was actually here.painter Alain Kleinmann signs the preface. It's thanks to these people that this book exists," concludes Philippe Enquin. I'm also aware that De mon balcon is a privileged view. It's the view of someone who lives in a comfortable apartment in a nice neighborhood, who won't lose his income, who doesn't have to risk his health on a daily basis. Those who live in a small apartment with their whole family, who work in the first or second line, who have lost their job, can't have the same outlook. I'm aware that it's because I'm in a privileged position that I've been able to take a rather tender view of confinement. "François Morel agreed to write a preface to the book.The photos of this artist, isolated, photographed and often immortalized, are not there for a souvenir. They are there to pay tribute to this period of resilience that has passed through each and every one of us.
Le Parisien Paris-Île de France, Saturday, December 19
LE CONSEIL LECTURE DE LA RÉDACTIONPHILIPPE ENQUINDE MON BALCON Chroniques d'un confinement parisienPreamble by François MOREL,Preface by Alain KLEINMANNwww.philippeenquin.net2020, 29 €When Philippe Enquin presented his project to us, let's face it, we didn't know what to expect. He introduced himself as an 85-year-old Parisian, born in Argentina, who had spent part of his confinement photographing this strange Paris from his Haussmann balcony. Over the course of a hundred pages, a different, calm world unfolds, a masked world where you can read the newspaper as you cross the street, where friends talk to each other from four floors away, where neighbors discover each other as they applaud at 8pm. The presence of the homeless and other "frontliners" is all the more palpable. These photos of confinement are radically touching, human, and often joyful too. So, now that the confinement has passed, then returned, we still don't know, understand even less, yes, it does us good to say to ourselves as we look at this book, gam zou letovah, this too is for the good." I felt a very singular atmosphere of gravity and fraternity during this period", writes the author. In all, I must have taken over 3,000 photos. The 140 selected illustrate, thanks to the often involuntary complicity of my models, the sparks of humanity I'm trying to capture.Without being angelic, he notes, however, that he is "aware that De mon balcon is a privileged view. From someone who lives in a comfortable apartment with a large balcony, in a beautiful neighborhood, who won't lose his income, who doesn't have to risk his health on a daily basis. Those who live in a small apartment with their whole family, who work in the first or second line, who have lost their job, can't have the same outlook. I'm aware that it's because I'm in a privileged position that I've been able to take a rather tender view of confinement. These shots," writes artist Alain Kleinmann in his preface, "show us that life has managed to continue to make its way through the fog and the leaden blanket, like those little tufts of grass or flowers that manage to split the asphalt of the streets to exist and flourish despite everything. And it's this in spite of everything that makes these confined characters so moving, their smiles, their glances, their gestures, their greetings, their kisses, their applause. For a second, the most mundane of events is a source of wonder: reading, strolling, waiting, sports, walking the dog, municipal services, the simple flight of a bird... "As we described in issue 180, dedicated to confinement, it's not so much our gaze that has changed as what it can focus on. Philippe Enquin's gaze wanted to see happiness, solidarity and, sometimes, from up there, he was able to land on this new spirituality of which he speaks and which became entangled with his participation in the studies of the virtual synagogues of the time.**His photos are not in the zeitgeist," writes actor François Morel in his preamble, "they are in the breath of the moment, when life doesn't resign itself to giving up, when humor becomes an act of courage, when conversations at the Café du Commerce no longer have the charm of forbidden counters, when a kindly look becomes the best weapon for resisting the gloom, defeatism and despondency propagated by the anxiety-inducing taps on the news channels.
Tenoua
DE MON BALCONChroniques d'un confinement parisienPhilippe ENQUINPreambleFrançois MORELPrefaceAlain KLEINMANNThe man walking maskedIt's hard to analyze an image, just as it's hard to explain poetry. We look at this reclining man crossing the street, we look at his black clothes, his black tie, his black moccasins, his black gloves, his light hat with a black headband, we look at this tree trunk without branches or leaves... A symbolic explosion occurs, that's what counts, what I'm commenting on here is almost unimportant, the important thing is what we can't say, because the power of the image escapes the language of words.Death walks on the pedestrian strips, respecting the rules, killing is his right. The Raven walks, in Paris, Buenos Aires, Rome, Madrid, Prague... A universal image, the Raven walks in a world decimated by the plague of the Covid Raven of Carnival... That's what this photo evokes in me, the emotion of seeing this gentleman in a hurry to attend a masked ball in Venice, carnival as a staging of the world, the ball of life, of the passage from one to another. In each of you, the symbolic force of this image will illuminate in its own way, draw its own path, mobilize your own feelings. It will undoubtedly remain as one of the symbolic images of the troubled times in which we live, black and black, like the man crossing the street.José MuchnikPoet and anthropologistThis text is to be found in De mon balcon
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