Photography from A to Z

What do adolescence, fairy tales, museums, and Burgundy have in common?

Produced on the occasion of the bicentenary of photography, the exhibition Photography from A to Z was conceived in close collaboration with the Neuflize OBC Corporate Collection. It brings together works from this collection, placed in dialogue with works from the MEP collections, offering a cross-perspective between the richness of both photographic holdings. Far from any linear narrative, it unfolds a reading based on associations, encounters, and shifts, where the works dictate their own order, independent of any chronology or hierarchy.

Each letter becomes a word, and each word summons a group of works that converse with one another, sometimes in surprising ways. Here, LIFE magazine meets with Kodak advertising, Noctambules find themselves at the Museum, and Simulacrum negotiates with Truth. These juxtapositions reveal the identity of the Neuflize OBC Corporate Collection—deeply rooted in contemporary creation, yet tracing its origins back to the avant-garde movements of the 1920s.

From Rineke Dijkstra to Bernard Plossu, and from Agnès Geoffray to Florence Henri, the numerous artists featured in the exhibition reflect a multiplicity of ways of seeing, displaying, and conceptualizing the photographic image.

Drawing inspiration from Ways of Seeing (1972) by John Berger, the exhibition borrows from this foundational work the idea that “seeing comes before words”: we perceive reality before we can name and conceptualize it. This very principle structures the exhibition’s layout, where juxtaposition and enigma take precedence over demonstration. Each gallery presents an association that asserts itself prior to any explanation. Each entry in this lexicon is accompanied by texts, quotes, and anecdotes that illuminate—without ever exhausting—the plurality of narratives conveyed by photography.

Photography from A to Z builds upon a long-standing partnership between the MEP and the Neuflize OBC Corporate Foundation, a loyal supporter of the institution for nearly thirty years.