in Love Songs, Photography and Intimacy

The collective exhibition Love Songs proposes a completely new vision of the history of photography through the prism of intimate relationships between lovers.

Bringing together 14 series by some of the most important photographers of the 20th and 21st centuries, the exhibition comprises both masterpieces from the MEP collection, and loaned works by important contemporary artists, many of which are exhibited for the first time in Europe. It shows both the importance of this subject to artists working now, as well as its rich history.

At the core of the exhibition, Nobuyoshi Araki and Nan Goldin’s ensembles are the starting point of this new vision of photography. The work of these two photographers is compared with series by other great names, such as René Groebli, Emmet Gowin, Larry Clark, Sally Mann, Leigh Ledare, Hervé Guibert or Alix Cléo Roubaud, as well as from contemporary artists as JH Engström & Margot Wallard, RongRong&inri, Lin Zhipeng (aka No 223), Hideka Tonomura or Collier Schorr.

Taking inspiration from Goldin’s ‘Ballad…’ Love Songs is conceived and organised like a musical compilation offered to a lover, with Side A, the first half of the show, made up of series from 1950-1980/90 and Side B, the second half, 1980/90 to now…

Taking us through many different stories and scenarios photographed between different couples, from the first days of an affair, through marriages, honeymoons, domestic bliss and the pain of separation, even to the last days shared between loves, the intimacies shared on film are revealed in all their poetry and honesty.

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More info available on MEP's website.