Northwest Region
“Flash Bac
From September 2021 to March 2022, students in the final year of the Bac Pro (vocational training certificate) in Landscaping and Garden Products Sales from the lycée Notre-Dame des Jardins d’Apprentis d’Auteuil from Château des Vaux in La Loupe (28), took part in the Flash Baca workshop with photographer Didier Leplat.
Project supported by the Fondation Foujita.
DRAWING INSPIRATION FROM THE PAST
Once the project had been presented to the young people by the educational team, they went to meet the instructor, Didier Leplat, at an art gallery in Nogent le Rotrou. They visited his exhibition and, for a moment, entered his world: the profession of photographer, the medium, the artist’s work and his techniques and processes.
The preparatory work began: the 22 students were divided into 5 groups and the framework was set. The 19th century period and 5 themes were selected: abandonment, love, the afterlife, the environment and the industrial revolution.
In order to consider their work as accurately as possible, each group drew up a presentation file including a study of artists from the 19th century.e century and their artistic movement, the choice of theme and work, the search for the message to be conveyed, the role of each person in the photo, the search for accessories, the selection of locations for the shoot, and so on.
Once the preparatory work was done, it was time to shoot, with the help of Didier Leplat! The youngsters were just as committed and extremely meticulous for this stage. The desire to obtain a photo just as they had imagined it led them to take multiple shots to adjust the hand positioned 2 centimetres higher than planned, or to add forgotten accessories.
RESTITUTION, A MOMENT OF VALORIZATION
This complex exercise enabled the students to achieve a number of objectives: discover photography, enrich and develop their knowledge of art history, learn to work in a group and manage a collective project, or individually defend a group’s work.
The workshop gave rise to two types of feedback:
- An individual oral presentation to certify module MG1 (French and humanist culture/expression). This was an opportunity for the students to defend their group work in their own words and with their own personalities, under the reassuring gaze of Didier Leplat, who attended the final assessment.
- An exhibition set up in the school’s hall at the Kermesse 2022, which attracted some 7,000 visitors, enabling the groups to present their work to a wider audience at their school.
Each of these presentations is an opportunity for participants to highlight their experience, explain their chosen artistic approach and emphasize the importance of these workshops for autonomy and self-confidence. It’s also an opportunity for young people to express in their own words the positive and less positive aspects of their artistic practice, while revealing their own abilities.
