Galerie Huit Arles - Private Collection

In the 1980’s the Franco-Russian photographer Harry O. Meerson

( 1910 – 1991 ) invited me to sit for a series of black & white portraits, in the cinematic splendour of a ducal hunting lodge near Louveciennes. During the shoot this old-style master regaled me with tales of high-fashion Paris between the wars, as I sipped chilled champagne from a drinking horn. So many years later, and these images are a delightful reminder of a glamorous former life and mark the beginning of my passion for photography. Inspired by Harry’s universe, the very next day I attended a small Drouot auction in Paris, and acquired, for a modest sum, a disparate and dusty pile of silver print photographs of Josphine Baker, circa 1925.
"Today, the cleaned and framed images grace the walls of a guest suite in the Galerie Huit Arles mansion, named after this much loved American heroine. So that’s how my collection started, slowly evolving over the years as I hone my eye and warily navigate the rapid changes in the photography universe." -

 

Julia de Bierre

This year, as Galerie Huit Arles reopens after several months renovation, the upper floor of the mansion is open to visitors for the very first time. Along with the programmed exhibitions, playful glimpses of the Private Collection blur the lines between a formal gallery and an artist’s residence.