Thursday, November 12, 2009
Uncategorized Speakeasy with Etienne Abobi
Posted by Debbie Michaud @DebsMichaud on Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 6:34 PM
Who is Etienne Abobi? Well, he’s from the small French/German border town Saint-Avold; he’s been a deputy consul at the French Consulate in Atlanta for the past two years; and he’s the man behind the AKA Photo Project — a small collective of “accidental artists” currently exhibiting its debut show, Face à Face, at Little Five Points’ Opal Gallery through Nov. 13.
I don’t think many people are aware that there’s a French Consulate in Atlanta, let alone a tight-knit French community here. Could you talk about the French presence in Atlanta?
We have had the consulate since 1989 and our last Bastille day was at the [International] school and the theme was the 20th anniversary of the French consulate in Atlanta. So far we don’t have a French school, we have the International School with the French section, but we have some different kinds of schools. You have International Community School, which specializes in refugees who are native French speakers. In the greater Atlanta area, almost 3,000 people are registered but we think we are really two times this number.
How have you seen the French community influence local culture?
I met Constance [Lewis, Opal Gallery director] and this is a special gallery. I come here all the time and she hosts so many events with French photographers, so for me the French part is always presented in Atlanta. We work a lot with Théâtre du Rêve, so I saw several plays in French here. We have the High Museum and the Louvre … so for me the relationship between Atlanta and France is really strong and you have the partnership between Georgia Tech and the region of Lorraine, France, you have the sister city Atlanta-Toulouse, so in my job I always meet people who are really involved with the French.
Here in Atlanta you have 64 nations represented, so it’s a real international city. So you have the francophonie, the Québec, Swiss consulates, the Belgian consulate. You have a lot of things happening with the French, French culture or French language.
What is the AKA Photo Project?
With my club, I met a lot of French guys and after 10 minutes I could not stop talking about photography because I really like it. Some of them said, “Oh yes, I took some pictures… .” I was amazed by the quality of these guys’ photography and was thinking that someone has to show their work.
At the beginning it was an idea to gather all the French photographers. I talked with Connie, and she said, “[You can do it] at the gallery but you need a theme.” So I asked them to take some pictures of Atlanta. I really wanted to show the French presence in Atlanta and our vision of the city to Atlantans. The main idea of the AKA photo project [is that] we are all known for our jobs but we are not known as photographers so that’s why we choose AKA. … Everything started with this idea that every one of us is a photographer … not necessarily a high-quality photographer but still an accidental artist.
Many of the photos are of things we see all the time, but may not really notice.
You know I used to live in Paris and the people who showed me Paris were foreigners. I was walking by places and I never saw it that way before and they say, “Did you know there is a statue on the building?” and I’d say “Oh no, I never noticed it.” So, I hope that we could show the people of Atlanta that they could rediscover the city with all these pictures. ... You know for most people it’s everyday life. They don’t notice that there’s a factory here or a tunnel there. … We are proud to rediscover the city. That is the goal and that’s why we call it Face à Face, because it’s the first time for us as photographers to the public and it’s a face à face between the city and the viewer.
(Photo by Katherine Wickhorst)
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