"A beautiful book... a unique tribute to this estate, the cosmos and our friendship."-Brad Pitt
Photo artist Robert Charles Mann explores time and space through luminous pinhole photography, capturing the sun's movement across the sky over the storied Chteau Miraval.
How can we see the flow of time, endless and unbroken? In his quest to understand temporality, change, and permanence, Robert Charles Mann has returned to a minimalist approach to photography. Over the course of several years, he has installed handcrafted pinhole cameras throughout the historic Miraval estate, continuously capturing the sun from solstice to solstice on paper. Solargraphs are not composite montages, but the result of continuous exposure of the sun for six months in a practice bridging old-school traditional methods with modern digital techniques. The result is a breathtaking visual meditation on time, space, and the cosmos.
Featuring a foreword by Brad Pitt, the steward of Chteau Miraval, this curated volume presents fifty exceptional images that bear witness to the silent, continuous movement of time and light. Mann's solargraphs are radiant, mysterious, and full of wonder, now brought together for the first time in this exceptional artist's book.
Table of Contents:
- The place, the sun, and the bond (Le lieu, le soleil et le lien), Brad Pitt, pg. 14
- An art of non-action, or the deposition of time (Un art du "non-agir", ou le dépôt du temps, Mikaël Faujour, pg. 18
- Works (Œuvres), pg. 23
- List of works (Liste d'œuvres), pg. 102
- Colophon, pg. 107
About the Author :
Robert Charles Mann is an American photo artist based in France. A master printer before becoming a photographer in his own right, he quickly gained recognition for the exceptional quality of his work, collaborating with leading fashion and film photographers the 1980s and 1990s. Today, he is known for his enigmatic, dreamlike pinhole photography, which he produces during artist residencies at historical French chteaux. He is represented by the Galerie Capazza and the Cardi Gallery. He also composes music for films and television, and is versed in astronomy. Having established himself in Los Angeles, Mann moved to Paris in 1989 and now resides in the Loire Valley.
Brad Pitt
is an acclaimed American actor and film producer. He rose to fame in the 1990s with roles in films such as Thelma and Louise, Interview with the Vampire, and Fight Club. He has received a plethora of accolades over the course of his career. Not just a Hollywood icon, Pitt is also a dedicated patron of the arts. He has cultivated a profound appreciation for art and photography, collecting contemporary art and collaborating with various artists. A friend of the photographer, Pitt has curated a permanent installation of Mann's Solargraphs at Miraval Studios.
Review :
“[…] Every solstice, Robert comes to Miraval to pick up his pinhole cameras and install new ones. The solargraphs he produces continue to amaze me year after year. Each time, I am stunned to see in one image a place so rich in history and the luminous trace of our journey around the sun. Today I am delighted that Miraval inspires such a beautiful book. This book represents for me a unique tribute to this estate, the cosmos and our friendship.”
—Brad Pitt, from the foreword
"In the sun-drenched heart of Provence, where time stretches out like vineyards across rolling hills, a remarkable creative collaboration has unfolded between Hollywood icon Brad Pitt and the enigmatic American photographer Robert Charles Mann. The result is Solargraphs at Château Miraval—a mesmerising new book that captures not just the landscape of Pitt’s storied estate, but the invisible sweep of the cosmos itself, all through the deceptively humble lens of a pinhole camera. [...] In an age where photography is often instant and disposable, Solargraphs [...] is a radiant counterpoint—an ode to slowness, intention, and the art of seeing beyond the visible. It is a tribute to a place, to a process, and most movingly, to a friendship built on light." —Viscount Yves de Contades, IX Magazine
"Robert Charles Mann is ducking under a 3 meter long, 400 year old oak beam in his Loire Valley studio. Suspended from the vaulted ceiling by a system of pulleys inherited from his father, it is a massive musical instrument he’s just pulled down to demonstrate to me how it is played. Mann’s compositions on the Longwire were notably woven throughout the score of the film Ad Astra, and the instrument features in the opening credits and the climactic confrontation on Neptune. When he’s not composing music, the multi-hyphenate creative can often be found scaled up a ladder or in a tree, installing one of his pinhole cameras to capture the sun’s path.
In the artist’s studio, surrounded by the hum of the Longwire and the enduring imprint of his legendary collaborations, Mann and I discuss an artistic practice defined by constant experimentation and the profound creative power of letting go." —Paige Miller, FAD
“Through a serendipitous line of who knows who, based on Mann’s work as a master printer, Mann wound up connected with the actor Brad Pitt. Mann did some work helping Pitt organize and print a decade’s worth of Pitt’s photographs, and in the course of their conversations over the years, Pitt’s involvement with Chateau Miraval became important. The idea was born that Mann would install pinhole cameras at Miraval, leave them open for some time, to see what happens. Six months is roughly 180 days. One hundred and eighty arcs of the sun across the sky, each one held in a single frame. What you get in that single image is perhaps not the passing of time, but the presence of time. It’s a humbling idea.” —W. Scott Olsen, FRAMES
“[Robert’s] images are rooted in place yet evoke something existential. […] Solargraphs documents moments in time from a place that holds deep meaning […] Friendship and nature are as intertwined with his work as his own two hands, which built and installed each camera.” —Hayley Donigan, Deep Travel
“50 of Mann’s mysterious, dreamlike works from Château Miraval are collected together in his new book Solargraphs. A solargraph is a photographic image created with pinhole cameras using long exposures that capture the sun’s movement across the sky […] The old school cameras and slow, patient process goes against the current trend for high tech digital cameras and instant gratification.” —Graeme Green, Amateur Photographer
