Promotion de la Photographie de Presse en Région P.A.C.A.
| SERGE ASSIER AS SEEN BY RENE CHAR |
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Little Serge had no choice after the family upheaval to which he was subjected with the other members of the household, caused by the fever of gambling. The decision was motivated by the energy that oozed from his mother. She came to settle in Gap, with her children, after total ruin. Anyone else would have given up, but not she. She found a job for Serge with a farmer who had flocks of sheep to guard and waited to see what could be done for the others, once she was sure of getting a well-paid job for herself. Highly strung, sensitive and rather obstinate, Serge was absorbed by the most inhuman and tricky of professions, but also most straightforward : a shepherd. In just a few years, Serge Assier used his eyes to see and his brain to understand. His relationships with other beings and with varied situations, the originality of people's faces and the blaze of expression, what was gushing out of the day's well, wherever he was, was just begging to be reported in the way that Serge Assier knew how, a totally personal way of reporting. This insistence of the eye showed him how powerful he could be, but it also later presented difficulties which he was able to overcome and then forget. His first camera was of little importance. But his passion was instantaneous. What we can now call his beginnings did not exempt him from the need to earn a living, even if only with a temporary profession. First of all, freelance journalist in the provinces, and then suddenly, a change - he started finding it difficult, as a free worker, to be harnessed in his quest for Art ; a decor which was wiped away as fast as it had been erected, whilst Assier reached a situation of limpidity, perfection that composition renders intrepid, and finally an inventive mind which opens up onto the future and total dismisses fumbling and doubt. And here is the proof. Let there be no mistake, for Serge Assier, the time has not come to inaugurate, but rather to invite the public to confirm, or to discover his work, but in all events, to enjoy themselves here in Arles today. May 1984 René Char |