The context

Honoring a city's living heritage.

In 1998, the Amicale des Raphaélois had the idea to honor the immigrants, Italians for the most part, "who have made their city what it is today."

The commission

The photographer Patrick Faigenbaum was asked to capture the memory of the families and community figures who have left a mark. Faigenbaum came to Saint-Raphael to take the portraits for the commission and produced a group of thirty-six exceptional photographs, both in black and white and in color, which were shown at an ehxhibition organized at the Palais des Congrès in Saint-Raphael. 

A year later, the Liberté primary school commissioned Faigenbaum to make a series of photographs of children at the age when they begin to discover the different artistic disciplines. Various Saint-Raphael families were photographed while carrying-out ancestral trades, inside or in front of their homes, and the children were photographed while learning, either in class or on the playground. Patrick Faigenbaum visited Saint-Raphael frequently over a period of two years. The village elders, their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren left their names and faces for both commissions, and each one testifies, as much as the other, to the living heritage of their city. 

Patrick Faigenbaum

Patrick Faigenbaum lives and works in Paris. His training in painting and graphic arts led him to a very personal practice oh photography, primarily portraiture. His photographic work deals primarily  with the theme of family and genealogy, showing people in their family and social roles. While he previously worked exclusively in black and white, Faigenbaum introduced color to his artistic practice for the first time while completing this commission.

His photographs are part of the most important collections of American and European institutions (MoMA, Metropolitan Museum, Fondation Cartier, etc.), and he regularly exhibits his work in major museums all over the world.