Ray Charles exhibition by Arlette Kotchounian

At Le Royal Monceau - Raffles Paris, in the Suite that bears his name, five never-before-seen photographs of Ray Charles, taken by Arlette Kotchounian, embody the presence and aura of this giant of American music within the very walls where he stayed during his visits to France.

At once historical documents and personal memories, Arlette Kotchounian's five photographs are imbued with a complicity and tenderness that is underlined by the grain and texture of the black and white images. We are introduced to the musician's daily life, privileged spectators of moments of rest or reflection, through photographs that, beneath their apparent simplicity, are governed by a composition of great rigour.
White Shirt IV (1985) reveals this attention to framing, light and balance of form; the close-up brings Ray Charles so close that he seems familiar.

In this vision of an intimate Ray Charles, the suitcase on the unmade bed (Flight case, 1985) introduces a beautiful continuity between the space of the photograph and the exhibition space that is Suite 714: a place of living, but also a place of passage, the bedroom is a private, secret world that is open to us, and Arlette Kotchounian's images are so many doors that lead us there.

But it is also, and perhaps above all, a story of musicians that these images tell us: the pianist's hands suspended above the keyboard (Hands Ill, 1997) are the perfect expression of the dialogue between sound and image that dominates Arlette Kotchounian's work. The movement that animates them is musical, a living rustle, paradoxical in the image: fixed and yet very present. In the same way, the photograph Loving you (1983) reveals the score of the song 'I can't stop loving you' in a remarkably controlled chiaroscuro. The photographer's art of nuance is undoubtedly the strongest echo of the subtlety of the genius's melodies.