Would I ever imagined that this 2 Years project would have brought me back to my first photo school in Paris …non in a million years … it all started in 2017 when my husband Horst Hamann who had just exhibited at the Orangerie in Schwetzingen a truly beautiful black and white exhibition in the Schlosspark, invited me to be on stage at a Talk Show in Palais Hirsch to talk about his passion for photography through his time spent in this fabulous garden. Barbara Gilsdorf who curated Horst’s exhibition and book, spontaneously asked me if I would be interested to create an exhibition for their 350 Years Jubilium of the Asparagus in Germany.
That’s where my photographic journey started!
The Schwetzingen Asparagus community welcomed me with their open arms so that I was able to create a body of work that has been exhibited more than 4 times : Palais Hirsch Schwetzingen, Pflegschloss Museum in Schrobenhausen, The Camp in Aix en Provence and Speos (my photo school in Paris)
After spending a whole harvesting season with the asparagus harvesters, I could relate to this skilled hand labor. It took me few weeks to find my conceptual ideas as I needed to spend time with the workers and the royal vegetable that was going to be celebrated.
It was always obvious to me that I would portrait the harvesters with their tools, at work in their fields, and indeed their hands as Madame Asparagus needed to be gently extracted from the sandy soil by hand!
A true Labor of Love!
After photographing all the elements I needed to compose my photo collages I felt as something was missing, some key element… I decided to spend more time in the field and get closer to the labourer. While taking more reportage pictures and following two young Polish brothers I witnessed a delightful moment : both were giggling and racing through the sandy rows, gathering a large amount of asparagus in their wooden baskets, there I needed my hands to express myself as we had no common language to understand each other. After few comical gestures I understood what was their driving force : each time they were spotting a crack on the dry sandy soil they knew their “prey” would be ripe and ready to be harvested. Like a race between them all, their days would become lighter as they would have goal!
and my goal now was to incorporate that particular element : this magical sand!
Obsessed by this idea, I woke up one night and decided to tear my baryta prints vertically and manually recreate this symbolic crack so I could place the original sand in the middle of my photograph.
This emotional process lead me to a final result that gave me a feeling of respect to the many labourers that actually participate in an agriculture tradition that is still intact.
PARIS PHOTO PX3 2020 WINNER PX3
PX3 2020 Winner - Labor of Love
Marie Preaud gewinnt „Prix de la Photographie Paris“
Fotocollage aus Schwetzinger Projekt „Labor of love“ wird prämiert
Nicht nur, dass Marie Preaud, ihre Serie an Fotocollagen - nach dem Schwetzinger Auftakt - im In- und Ausland ausstellte, nun wurde eines der Bilder mit der Silbermedaille des „Prix de la Photographie Paris“ in der Sparte künstlerische Collage prämiert. Dieser zweite Preis bereichert ihre Reihe an Preisen und Anerkennungen als international wirkende Fotografin. Wir erinnern uns an das Projekt „labor of love“, das Marie Preaud zum Jubiläum „350 Jahre Spargelanbau in Schwetzingen“ unter Einbindung der lokalen Spargelbauern und Spargelstecher erarbeitete. Die Ausstellung war in der Spargelsaison 2018 für einige Wochen zu sehen. In den Bildern äußert die gebürtige Französin ihre Faszination über die beharrliche Arbeit der Aufzucht und Ernte des königlichen Gemüses, die bis zum heutigen Tag mühsam per Hand getätigt wird. Seit Jahren setzt Marie Preaud in ihren Bildern die Hand als Metapher ein, um das Leben, die Arbeit und die Geschichte dahinter zu porträtieren. Dies gelang ihr meisterhaft in der Schwetzinger Serie „Labor of Love“, was unter anderem die Würdigung durch den renommierten Prix de la Photographie bezeugt. Marie Preaud studierte Fotografie in Paris und New York, wo sie ihren späteren Mann, den Fotografen Horst Hamann, kennenlernte. Die Glückwünsche erreichen die Kosmopolitin jedoch in Mannheim, wo sich die Familie vor kurzem niederließ.