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Portfolio

Portfolio : Media Alert

Olivier Menanteau
p. 104-115

Abstracts

‘Media Alert’ is a series of seven photographs produced in May and June of 2006 at UN Headquarters in New York using an official pass reserved for press photographers. While I did make the rounds with those photographers (press room, doors of the Security Council Chamber), my methods were those that I normally reserve for quieter, less public areas not as heavily covered by the media: lengthy and obsessive periods of thoughtful observation, the mapping of places where negotiations are conducted and internecine conflicts are waged, discussions with the protagonists, and use of a large format view camera.
My aim was to consider how the United Nations produces and maintains its image. It has become a colossal instrument of communication and authority for all of the states on the planet, whatever the extent of their power and their size. The United Nations is a tool available to heads of state, governments, NGOs, associations, and public figures, and they use it to legitimate their power or their cause.
These photographs seek to analyse the fragility and the limits of a machine in which hierarchical systems are reproduced in a vast imitation of Western and colonial traditions. Paradoxically, they also show me caught up in this total spectacle. Since United Nations TV (http://www.un.org/webcast/) incorporated me into its system, remaining off-camera is no longer an option: Media Alert.

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References

Bibliographical reference

Olivier Menanteau, “Portfolio : Media Alert”Études photographiques, 23 | 2009, 104-115.

Electronic reference

Olivier Menanteau, “Portfolio : Media Alert”Études photographiques [Online], 23 | mai 2009, Online since 25 May 2009, connection on 28 March 2024. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/etudesphotographiques/2681

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About the author

Olivier Menanteau

Olivier Menanteau vit et travaille à Paris, il est diplômé de l’École nationale supérieure de la photographie d’Arles (1987). Entre 2002 et 2006, il a été résident et boursier à l’Akademie Schloss Solitude de Stuttgart, aux ateliers EXO à São Paulo, au Wissenschaftskolleg de Berlin et à l’International Studio & Curatorial Program à New York. Ces travaux ont été présentés, entre autres, à la Pinacoteca de São Paulo et au musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes en 2005 et en 2009 au pavillon des Arts de Zagreb et au Museum of Modern and Contempory Art de Bolzano.Olivier Menanteau lives and works in Paris; he is a graduate of the École de la Photographie d’Arles (National School of Photography, Arles, 1987). Between 2002 and 2006, he was artist in residence and a grant recipient at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, the EXO workshops in São Paulo, the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin), and the International Studio and Curatorial Program in New York. These works have been presented at a wide range of venues, including the Pinacoteca art museum in São Paulo and the Musée des Beaux Arts de Nantes (Museum of Fine Arts, Nantes) in 2005, and the Art Pavilion Zagreb and the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Bolzano in 2009.

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Copyright

The text and other elements (illustrations, imported files) are “All rights reserved”, unless otherwise stated.

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