Martine Fougeron: Teen Tribe
Curated by Cory Jacobs at Fondation d'Entreprise Hermès
September 20-November 8, 2013
23 color photographs.

From the series “Nicolas & Adrien”

Wall Text by Cory Jacobs, curator at The Gallery at Hermès:

 The work explores adolescence as a liminal state, between childhood and adulthood, between the feminine and the masculine and between innocence and a burgeoning self-identity. The focus is on the adolescents’ heightened states of mind. —Martine Fougeron

Martine Fougeron’s Teen Tribe is an intimate portrait of her sons and their friends in both New York and France. From a unique perspective, the series is a coming of age story depicting the universal desire to become both a strong individual and part of a group. The Gallery at Hermès is pleased to present 23 color photographs from this recently completed body of work.

Fougeron began her series, Teen Tribe, in 2005 when her two Franco-American sons were 13 and 14 and followed them for six years. This was also the moment when Fougeron turned to photography for the first time since she was a teenager. She combined a worldly eye with the freshness of a new medium finding a delicate balance between mother and observer. We witness everyday life and the rites of passage found within it. You see Adrien trying to fit into his mother’s oversized jean jacket at 13, two years later reading The Catcher in the Rye, Nicolas leaning in for a kiss and napping in the strong sun.

The gaze is telling in these pictures. The boys are figuring out who they are and who they want to become while staring out at both their mother and the artist, the push and pull of separating from family while gaining strength from it. Growing up is not always easy, but Fougeron gracefully shows us the metamorphosis in all its complicated beauty.

Press:

• Bullett Magazine :Photographer Martine Fougeron turns her Sons into Art in "Teen Tribe' by Allyson Shiffman - November 7, 2013.

• Lens Culture: Teen Tribe - November 4, 2013.

• L'Oeil de la Photographie:Teen Tribe at The Gallery at Hermès - October 30, 2013.

• Dust Magazine: October 26, 2013.

• Flakphoto: Martine Fougeron - October 25, 2013.

• The New York Times: A Little Privacy: Mom? by Caroline Cagney, Sunday Styles - September 22, 2013.

• Arts Culture Beat: The kids are all right by Brian Mastroianni, Columbia School of Journalism - September 30, 2013.

• CR Fashion Book: Teen Tribe, A photo exhibition by Martine Fougeron at the Hermès Gallery in New York Sept. 20, 2013. >>>pdf

• The New Yorker: Photo Both, Just Us Kids, posted by Genevieve Fussell - September 20, 2013.

• Whitewall Magazine: Martine Fougeron Teen Tribe at the Gallery at Hermès. Interview with curator Cory Jacobs.

• T Magazine, The New York Times: Culture, On View - A Mom Turns Her Sons Akward Adolescence Into Art' by Caroline Cagney - Sept. 18, 2013.

• Artsy: By Cory Jacobs - November 4, 2013.

• Artsy: Martine Fougeron at The Gallery at Hermès - September 2013.

The exhibition is produced by La Fondation d'Entreprise Hermès, NY. 
The exhibition is co-presented as part of the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF)’s Crossing the Line  2013 Festival.

View installation and layout: >>>pdf
Press Release