For Guerlain, Charlotte Abramow’s exhibition celebrates female beekeepers

In 2021, Guerlain initiated “Women for Bees” in partnership with UNESCO and the French Observatory of Apidology. The goal? Train around fifty beekeepers by 2025. In order to raise awareness of the protection of bees whose work is essential to the planet, the address on the Champs-Élysées is hosting “Piquées”, an exhibition by Charlotte Abramow to be discovered until 22nd of July.

Charlotte Abramow, committed photographer

His encounter with the photographer Paolo Roversi at the Rencontres d’Arles in 2010 operates, for Charlotte Abramow, like a revelation: she will become a photographer. Three years later, she landed in Paris to study her art at the École des Gobelins and rubbed shoulders with the Picto Prize for young fashion photography, which she won in 2014. As soon as she obtained graduation, major projects that reveal his talent to the world. Among them, his realizations of clips for the artist Angèle or the publication of a photographic book talking about his father’s illness Maurice, Sadness and laughter. She remembers : “In 2021, I was able to present my first personal exhibitions in Arles, at the Fisheye Gallery, and in New York, at the Richard Taittinger Gallery”.

An ode to nature and sisterhood

The same year, Guerlain is committed to highlighting women photographers during the group exhibition Femmes en regard. The Belgian photographer presents one of her photos and her style hits the mark: in 2022, it is therefore quite natural that perfumers turn to Charlotte Abramow for her project on the beekeepers of the “Women for Bees” program.

On the advice of Benoît Baume, founder of Fisheye magazine, she titles her exhibition Quilted : « I immediately found it very accurate because it alone brought together a lot of meanings that I had wanted to show through my exhibition. This name refers to the stings of bees, of course, but also to the golden embroidery – made by the Ateliers Baqué Molinié – present on some of his pictures and to the passion for beekeeping of these seven women – Aggelina, Charlotte, Dorothée, Léopoldine, Lorène, Maël and Oriane. According to the photographer, their gait can “to resonate with other people and germinate a seed of life change, in service to nature.”

“What was interesting in the context of the project was the parallel that I saw in real time between these women in beekeeping overalls, and the group of bees swarming in the hives, all at work in the harassing heat.” says Charlotte Abramow. This link is drawn in particular through the sewing threads affixed to eleven photographs, including the portraits of the beekeepers. The “dummy bee” embroideries are also a reminder of how threatened their existence is.

Carte blanche

Charlotte Abramow allowed herself the freedom to let the moment speak for her shots. “I wanted to capture spontaneous moments, actions related to beekeeping, taking the time to watch these women. I also wanted themWe look, straight into the lens, determined».

For more flexibility, she sometimes used her film camera, sometimes her digital camera: “The black and white emphasizes the contrasts, which is also a way to highlight the golden embroidery and bring something out of time or even more disturbing. Especially when the faces of the beekeepers disappear under the black veils of the jumpsuits.» A sensitive work in which shines through a powerful and inspiring sisterhood.

This experience was a real job exploration for Charlotte Abramow. As a result, the artist has designed, within the exhibition hall and with the help of Fabien Kouachi, director of awareness-raising operations at the OFA, an educational space. From drawings and photos, visitors learn about the world of bees and their role in the ecosystem. Something obvious for the artist: “It is very important that we are all aware of the subject because it is a societal, collective issue, which requires that humans mobilize and invest.”

> Charlotte Abramow’s exhibition “Piquées” is on view until July 22, 2022, at Maison Guerlain, 68 avenue des Champs-Elysées, in the 8th arrondissement of Paris.

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