Flou

With its many quotations, the book, published together with delpire & co, creates a dialogue between the images and the way in which blur has been described by authors and artists as diverse as Charles Baudelaire, Julia Margaret Cameron and Pierre Bourdieu, thus highlighting the multiple implications of blur in the perception of the world throughout history. As Serge Tisseron points out in his text, "If the rapid evolution of the world makes us anxious, we will probably prefer clear, stable images. If, on the contrary, we are anxious about a certain rigidity around us (...), we will prefer movement, the aspiration towards the future".

As a preamble, Pauline Martin's essay tells the history of blur, a term originally dedicated to a certain pictorial practice before taking on the meaning we know. Her expertise is completed by four essays: Martin Barnes looks at the development of blur in 19th century Britain; Martine Beugnet looks at the beginnings of cinema; while Florian Ebner and Michel Poivert focus respectively on the 1980s in Germany and on contemporary practice. A personal contribution by Sébastien Lifshitz and an interview with Serge Tisseron complete this reference work.