Beatrix von Conta

Beatrix von Conta was born in 1949 in Kaiserslautern in Germany, where she studied art and literature before moving to Aix-en-Provence in 1975 to work as a photographer. She now lives and works in Toulon.
She had her first major exhibition in 1976 at Jean Dieuzaide's Château d’Eau gallery in Toulouse. She also co-founded the monthly film, photography and literature journal entitled Clair-Obscur, in Aix-en-Provence.

Several years of investigative reporting resulted in an exhibition at the Musée Nicéphore Niepce in 1980 and the publication (by Dumont in Cologne) of the book entitled "Un enfant ne tombe pas du ciel" in 1982, followed by a traveling exhibition in the FNAC galleries. She then began to use albumin to color her photographic work, and the landscape became her main subject. A commission from the Ledoux Foundation on the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans in 1984 led to the publication of the project by Hazan, in 1989.

The "Reconnaissances" series, created at the suggestion of Vincent Cordebard and exhibited at the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie in Arles in 1992, gained her entrance to Le Réverbère gallery the same year. The work on the "Sainte-Victoire" mountain that she exhibited in 1994 with "Vois-là" at Le Réverbère, and in 2000 at the Musée-Château in Annecy, was published in 1999 by Images en Manœuvres Éditions in Marseille.

Beatrix von Conta designed the scenography for two large exhibitions assembling several major series: "L’Écorce du Temps" at the Toulon Art Museum in 2001, and "Le Temps inscrit" at the Musée du Revermont in Cuisiat in 2003.

In late 1999, simultaneously to the creation of "Espace de culture" (a project blending colour, black and white, painting and literature), and to "prepare" for the year 2000, Beatrix von Conta began work on the "Tel Quel" series, in "real" colors, exhibited at Paris-Photo in 2002, 2003 and 2004.

In 2000, going against the general trend of fireworks and festivities, the Albédo association in Marseille asked three artists from Le Réverbère gallery—André Forestier, Lionel Fourneaux and Beatrix von Conta—to produce photographic work on the theme of memory, based on the former internment and deportation camps at Milles, near Aix-en-Provence : "A vous, strict maximum" was presented at the FIAC in 2001, and in the framework of "L'été photographique de Lectoure" in 2003. Her "Vues volées" in black and white, the result of a commission from the Museum of Barcelonnette, were presented there in 2004, and at the gallery in 2006, in "La montagne en vues".

In 2004, her exploration of the notion of the "cliché" (another venture with "Albédo") led to the creation of the "Miroirs aux alouettes", parts of which now celebrate Le Réverbère's 25th birthday. In 2006, Beatrix von Conta received a 3-year commission for prospective work with the Photographic Observatory of Landscapes in Vanoise.

In addition to her photographic work, she intervenes in schools on a regular basis, convinced of the need to train and heighten the children's perception in the face of a changing world.