{"id":55750,"date":"2023-12-02T14:37:35","date_gmt":"2023-12-02T13:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mottodistribution.com\/site\/?p=55750"},"modified":"2023-12-02T14:37:35","modified_gmt":"2023-12-02T13:37:35","slug":"houston-thomas-block-humery-alberto-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mottodistribution.com\/site\/?p=55750","title":{"rendered":"Houston. Thomas Block Humery. Alberto Books"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\u00ab Houston \u00bb n\u2019est pas un livre comme les autres. Par le biais particulier de l\u2019autobiographie, il nous invite \u00e0 parcourir, ou \u00e0 imaginer, la moins connue des grandes m\u00e9galopoles am\u00e9ricaines. \u00c0 c\u00f4t\u00e9 de Los Angeles, New York, Miami ou Chicago, cette ville du Texas n\u2019a rien de la ville de carte postale. Elle en est peut-\u00eatre m\u00eame l\u2019antith\u00e8se avec ses quartiers tr\u00e8s \u00e9tendus, ses autoroutes qui la divisent, pour ne pas dire la tranchent et son \u00ab downtown \u00bb accabl\u00e9 par la chaleur en \u00e9t\u00e9. Pourtant c\u2019est l\u00e0 que Thomas Block Humery nous invite \u00e0 concevoir la ville au-del\u00e0 des consid\u00e9rations urbanistiques, socio-\u00e9conomiques ou culturelles, en mettant l\u2019accent sur la dimension intime comme dynamique de connaissance. Il voit la ville avant tout comme un lieu de projection de soi valid\u00e9 par l\u2019amour, l\u2019ambition, la r\u00e9alisation de soi, le confort esth\u00e9tique et d\u2019autres grandes esp\u00e9rances difficilement quantifiables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

La ville est ici li\u00e9e au sentiment et \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9motion. Selon cette proposition, l\u2019auteur d\u00e9passe les descriptions de g\u00e9ographie humaine, faites de courbes d\u00e9mographiques, de statistiques \u00e9conomiques ou de taux d\u2019activit\u00e9, pour ne conserver que la perspective individuelle faite de ressenti, d\u2019adaptation, de partage, de liens possibles, de visions changeantes, travers\u00e9e par la contingence, la d\u00e9licatesse voire la fragilit\u00e9 de l\u2019exp\u00e9rience. L\u2019espace urbain se d\u00e9ploie selon les modalit\u00e9s de la rencontre qui joue un r\u00f4le catalyseur et acc\u00e9l\u00e9rateur. Houston devient le th\u00e9\u00e2tre d\u2019une interaction o\u00f9 la connaissance de l\u2019espace va de pair avec l\u2019intensification de la relation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

L\u2019auteur revient dix ans apr\u00e8s cet \u00e9pisode v\u00e9cu et fait le point sur cette connaissance sp\u00e9cifique o\u00f9 des habitudes s\u2019\u00e9taient enracin\u00e9es et o\u00f9 des liens s\u2019\u00e9taient nou\u00e9s. Houston est alors un d\u00e9cor de th\u00e9\u00e2tre o\u00f9 des sc\u00e8nes r\u00e9elles se sont jou\u00e9es, un d\u00e9cor qui a lui-m\u00eame chang\u00e9, transform\u00e9 par les forces inh\u00e9rentes et sp\u00e9cifiques des villes am\u00e9ricaines pour lesquelles une d\u00e9cennie est d\u00e9j\u00e0 une fraction importante du temps. La ville et son visiteur se retrouvent comme deux amants qui n\u2019arrivent plus vraiment \u00e0 communiquer. On dit que les criminels reviennent toujours sur les lieux de leur crime. Qu\u2019en est-il de la personne qui revient sur les lieux d\u2019une histoire pass\u00e9e ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Le projet pose ici la question : peut-on montrer \u00e7a en images ? La r\u00e9ponse est ambigu\u00eb, avec des oui et des non, car les images, malgr\u00e9 leurs limites, peuvent traduire la pr\u00e9sence et l\u2019absence, le r\u00eave et la r\u00e9alit\u00e9, le pass\u00e9 et parfois la pr\u00e9carit\u00e9 du pr\u00e9sent. Thomas Block Humery s\u2019amuse \u00e0 rendre la ville de Houston labyrinthique, parcellaire, g\u00e9om\u00e9triquement abstraite et peut-\u00eatre m\u00eame chim\u00e9rique, comme lorsque l\u2019on veut recoller un bout de vie \u00e0 un autre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Le livre est plein de po\u00e9sie et de profondeur o\u00f9 il est question d\u2019un photographe qui ne voit plus que des m\u00e9taphores plut\u00f4t que le r\u00e9el. Le projet devient une autofiction et la r\u00e9ponse qu\u2019il propose prend la forme d\u2019une \u0153uvre d\u2019art. Il est question de relations \u00e0 distance, de publicit\u00e9s d\u00e9tourn\u00e9es d\u2019un \u00e2ge d\u2019or, de fa\u00e7ades de buildings qui font \u00e9cran, de temps qui passe, du souvenir de \u201cParis, Texas\u201d, de la flore locale, d\u2019appareils photo et de n\u00e9gatifs vierges. La ville devient une utopie, avec des souvenirs qui reviennent et des futurs qui se dessinent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Le projet prend une place particuli\u00e8re aujourd\u2019hui \u00e0 l\u2019heure o\u00f9 beaucoup d\u2019entre nous sont tent\u00e9s d\u2019aller vivre \u00ab ailleurs \u00bb, o\u00f9 une nouvelle forme de nomadisme s\u2019implante dans des modes de vie changeants. L\u2019exp\u00e9rience montre ici un ph\u00e9nom\u00e8ne de fragmentation, o\u00f9 la vie n\u2019est plus une simple ligne droite mais une succession de moments o\u00f9 l\u2019enracinement semble se faire \u00e0 diff\u00e9rents coins du globe, dans une sorte d\u2019atomisation des destins pris dans une multitude de potentialit\u00e9s. Thomas Block Humery ne tranche pas sur la morale de l\u2019histoire. Il accepte les espoirs comme les \u00e9checs et les prend comme les ferments d\u2019une vie qu\u2019il pr\u00e9f\u00e8re romanesque que totalement ma\u00eetris\u00e9e.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

La description de \u00ab Houston \u00bb ne saurait \u00eatre compl\u00e8te sans la mention texte de l\u2019auteur qui fait partie du projet, un texte en forme de confession qui contextualise le corpus d\u2019images et qui fait entrer, pas \u00e0 pas, le lecteur dans une sph\u00e8re secr\u00e8te o\u00f9 chacun peut un peu se retrouver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHouston\u201d is not like any other book. Through the unique approach of autobiography, it invites us to explore, or imagine, the lesser-known of the major American metropolises. Compared to Los Angeles, New York, Miami, or Chicago, this Texan city has nothing of the postcard-perfect image. It may even be the opposite with its sprawling neighborhoods, highways that divide, or dare I say, cleave it, and its downtown area sweltering in the summer heat. Nevertheless, it is here that Thomas Block Humery invites us to conceive the city beyond urban, socio-economic, or cultural considerations, emphasizing the intimate dimension as a dynamic of knowledge. He perceives the city primarily as a place of self-projection validated by love, ambition, self-fulfillment, aesthetic comfort, and other hard-to-quantify aspirations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this perspective, the city is closely tied to feelings and emotions. With this proposition, the author transcends human geography\u2019s descriptions consisting of demographic curves, economic statistics, or labor participation rates, retaining only the individual perspective shaped by emotions, adaptation, sharing, potential connections, and ever-changing visions influenced by contingency, delicacy, and the fragility of experience. The urban space unfolds through the dynamics of encounters, acting as a catalyst and an accelerator. Houston becomes the stage for an interaction where understanding of space goes hand in hand with the deepening of relationships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The author revisits this specific knowledge a decade after the experience, reflecting on entrenched habits and forged bonds. Houston serves as a backdrop where real scenes played out, a backdrop that has changed, transformed by the inherent and specific forces of American cities for which a decade is a significant fraction of time. The city and its visitor reunite like two lovers who struggle to communicate. They say that criminals often return to the scene of their crime. What about someone who revisits the scenes of a past story?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project raises the question: can this be conveyed through images? The answer is ambiguous, with both yes and no, because images, despite their limitations, can convey presence and absence, dreams and reality, the past, and sometimes the precariousness of the present. Thomas Block Humery playfully turns the city of Houston into a labyrinth, fragmented, geometrically abstract, and perhaps even chimerical, as if trying to piece together one fragment of life with another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book is replete with poetry and depth, featuring a photographer who sees metaphors more than reality. The project evolves into autofiction, and the response it offers takes the form of an artwork, touching on long-distance relationships, advertisements diverted from a golden age, building facades that act as screens, the passage of time, memories of \u201cParis, Texas,\u201d local flora, cameras, and blank negatives. The city becomes a utopia with returning memories and emerging futures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project holds a particular place today, as many of us are tempted to live \u201celsewhere,\u201d where a new form of nomadism is emerging in changing lifestyles. The experience here reveals a phenomenon of fragmentation, where life is no longer a simple straight line but a succession of moments, where rooting oneself seems to occur in various corners of the globe, in a kind of atomization of destinies caught in a multitude of potentialities. Thomas Block Humery does not pass judgment on the moral of the story. He embraces hopes and failures, regarding them as the ferment of a life that he prefers to be more romantic than entirely controlled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The description of \u201cHouston\u201d would not be complete without mentioning the author\u2019s text, which is part of the project, a confessional text that contextualizes the image corpus and gradually immerses the reader into a secret sphere where everyone can find a piece of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Order here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00ab Houston \u00bb n\u2019est pas un livre comme les autres. Par le biais particulier de l\u2019autobiographie, il nous invite \u00e0 parcourir, ou \u00e0 imaginer, la moins connue des grandes m\u00e9galopoles am\u00e9ricaines. \u00c0 c\u00f4t\u00e9 de Los Angeles, New York, Miami ou Chicago, cette ville du Texas n\u2019a rien de la ville de carte postale. Elle en […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14,1579],"tags":[9659,5481,9661,9657,7980,5478,9650,9230,9658,8426],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mottodistribution.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55750"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mottodistribution.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mottodistribution.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mottodistribution.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mottodistribution.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55750"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mottodistribution.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55759,"href":"https:\/\/www.mottodistribution.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55750\/revisions\/55759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mottodistribution.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mottodistribution.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mottodistribution.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}