Publisher: Le Renard Pale, France
Publication Date: 2007
Category: Artist's book
Materials & Contents:
Printed on velin d'Arches, with 3 black-and-white gelatin silver photographs.
Image Details:
The volume includes three photographs by Lucien Clergue, made in Baccarat in 1971 and printed by Kathy Cooper in the photographer's darkroom in Arles.
Edition: Edition of 26 copies in total; the first 5 copies, numbered in Roman numerals, include a handwritten poem by Matthieu Messagier and a signed photograph by Lucien Clergue; this copy is the regular issue, numbered 21/21.
Signature: Signed in pencil and numbered 21/21
Le cristal is a limited-edition artist's book created in collaboration between Lucien Clergue and the French poet Matthieu Messagier. Conceived as a tribute to Baccarat crystal, it brings photography and poetry into a tightly integrated dialogue. The book contains three black-and-white photographs made by Clergue in Baccarat in 1971, accompanied by an unpublished poem by Messagier written in response to these spare and abstract images. Issued in only 26 copies, this example is the regular numbered copy 21/21. As a work that combines photography, poetry, and fine limited-edition publishing, it holds notable documentary, bibliophilic, and collectible value.
Lucien Clergue (1934-2014) was one of the major French photographers of the second half of the twentieth century. Born in Arles, he remained deeply connected throughout his life to both the city and the landscape of the Camargue. His work spans nudes, beach nudes, bullfighting, Mediterranean landscapes, portraits of artists, and artist's books, and is especially noted for transforming the body, the shoreline, light, and curvature into a highly formal and poetic black-and-white language. In 1955, he met Pablo Picasso and developed a lasting friendship with him; he also maintained close ties with literature, music, theatre, and the visual arts, which gave his photography a distinctly interdisciplinary character.
In 1970, Clergue worked with Michel Tournier and Jean-Maurice Rouquette to launch the Rencontres d'Arles, helping turn Arles into one of the world's major centers of photographic culture. In 2006, he entered the photography section of the Academie des Beaux-Arts, becoming the first photographer elected to that dedicated seat, and in 2013 he served as President of the Academie. As an artist, publisher, and cultural advocate, Clergue not only shaped a major strand of postwar French art photography through his own images, but also left a lasting mark on the history of photography in Arles and in Europe more broadly.

Matthieu Messagier (1949-2021) was a French poet who came to prominence in 1971 with Manifeste electrique aux paupieres de jupes. His writing is known for its freedom of language, abrupt and rapid rhythm, and strongly experimental character, giving him a distinctive place in late twentieth-century French poetry. Born into an artistic family-his father was the painter Jean Messagier-he devoted his life to writing and collaborated with numerous artists on limited-edition poetry books and artist's publications.