The 57-year-old rural MP and self-styled Mr Normal, a moderate social democrat from the centre of the Socialist party, is France’s first leftwing president in almost 20 years. Projections from early counts, released by French TV, put his score at 51.9%.

His emphatic victory is a boost to the left in a continent that has gradually swung rightwards since the economic crisis broke four years ago.

Nicolas Sarkozy, defeated after one term in office, became the 11th European leader to lose power since the economic crisis in 2008.

He conceded defeat at a gathering of his party activists at the Mutualité in central Paris, urging them from the stage to stop booing Hollande. “I carry all the responsibility for this defeat,” he said.

He had spoken to Hollande to congratulate him. “From the bottom of my heart I want France to succeed with the challenges it faces. It is something much greater than us; France. This evening we must think exclusively of France.”

He said that after 35 years in politics and 10 years at the top of government, he would now become a simple “Frenchman among the French”.

The defeat of the most unpopular French president ever to run for re-election was not simply the result of the global financial crisis or eurozone debt turmoil. It was also down to the intense public dislike of the man viewed by many as the “president of the rich” who had swept to victory in 2007 with a huge mandate to change France. The majority of French people felt he had failed to deliver on his promises, and he was criticised for his ostentatious display of wealth, favouring the rich and leaving behind over 2.8 million unemployed. Political analysts said anti-Sarkozy sentiment had become a cultural phenomenon in France.

Hollande is the first Socialist president to win a French election since François Mitterrand’s re-election in 1988. Hours before the official announcement, hordes of cheering supporters began gathering at Paris’s Place de la Bastille, a flashpoint of the 1789 French revolution, where the left had celebrated Mitterrand’s first historic victory in 1981. The right has held the French presidency since Jacques Chirac’s victory in 1995.

Hollande’s first move as president will be to push Germany to renegotiate Europe’s budget discipline pact to include a clause on growth. He has vowed to push growth measures to the centre of Brussels’ handling of the eurozone crisis.

Ségolène Royal, Hollande’s former partner who was defeated by Sarkozy in 2007, said France had voted for change and a new approach to European economic policy. Manuel Valls, tipped for a cabinet post, said Hollande now had to reconcile a France that had been divided during Sarkozy’s term.

Hollande’s victory comes after a brutal and vitriolic campaign marked by the high score of the farright Front National’s Marine Le Pen, who came third in the first round with 17.9% and 6.4m votes. Sarkozy, who had launched his campaign in February with a marked rightwing slant on the values of work, family and national identity, lurched even further towards the extreme right as he courted Le Pen’s voters in the past two weeks, stressing the far-right topics of immigration, borders and fear of Islam.

Hollande, who has vowed to begin his reforms as soon as he takes office on 15 May, has accepted he will have “no state of grace” leading a country crippled by public debt and in economic crisis, with unemployment nudging a record 10%, a gaping trade-deficit, stuttering growth and declining industry. France’s public debt is so high that interest repayments alone account for the second highest state expenditure after education.

The rating agency Standards and Poors this year downgraded France’s triple-A credit rating, saying that over-high state spending was straining public finances. During the campaign, both Hollande and Sarkozy had promised to balance the books, – France hasn’t had a balanced budget for over 30 years.

Hollande’s manifesto is based on scrapping Sarkozy’s tax-breaks for the rich and putting up taxes for high earners to finance what he deems essential spending, including creating 60,000 posts in France’s under-performing school system. He has pledged to keep the public deficit capped, but for his delicate balancing act to work, he needs a swift return to growth in France, despite economists warning of over-optimistic official growth forecasts that need to be trimmed.

Asked on Friday what he would do if he loses, Sarkozy said simply: “There will be a handover of power. The nation follows its course. The nation is stronger than the destiny of the men who serve it,” he said.

The turn-out was high, estimated at around 80%.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/06/francois-hollande-wins-french-election

Trying to remember what the quote was.. something about keeping bdsm accessories in his car not for himself but for his photos, but Helmut may indeed have been un-confessed pervert. Disguising his fetishes in the guise of fashion photography, I don’t think he necessarily considered himself a fetish photographer. Or was he just putting the sex factor into fashion?

He’s not really interested me greatly before but I’ll have to do some research.

Some of the photos on display

Helmut Newton yves Saint Laurent rue Abriot 1975, Paris

Helmut Newton Calendrier Pentax, 1976

Helmut Newton

and this gem which was not in the gallery, but that I find delightful.

Helmut Newton

She says it well >> http://morningmidnight.com/post/2134210159/helmut-newton

I thanked my stars for:

Even having a home to get locked out of.
Financial security.
My clients for placing faith in my skills and services.
My brother for helping me get kicked started.

On display at Mémoires du futur, was an abundance of wonderful artwork from artists like Cindy Sherman, Breughel and Durer, Hirst and the Chapman Brothers, Robert Capa, Pierre et Gilles.  The range was huge, yet all carried a common theme – the macabre and morbid, the grotesque and that in ways was present throughout, and that, at times, made it difficult to view. Yet it was a somewhat morbid fascination that is not only a personal trait (I know this to be true), that made it hard to turn away. (Some notes from the exhibition PDF 1 PDF2)

Olbricht’s chosen theme was more clearly emphasised by the inclusion of the  ”Vanitas”. Vanitas, though it’s not new to me in concept, I did not however realise there was a specific term or artistic genre devoted specifically to this idea. Vanitas as a theme in art is most commonly associated with Dutch and Flemish painters, but we can also now find more contemporary artists experimenting with the still life that celebrates the skull displayed alongside objects of beauty or objects that signify wealth e.g rich food or bottles of fine wine. Damien Hirst made For the Love of God. An ironic suggestion that the only way to achieve wealth, is to look inside oneself? Or perhaps to quite simply die where our wealth is found through freedom of spirit. Or was he just making an object of beauty and desire, to remind us only the rich may revel in such possessions. Whenever I view it I am certainly reminded of my place.

Paintings executed in the vanitas style are meant as a reminder of the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death. They also provided a moral justification for many paintings of attractive objects.

Most pleasantly I was introduced to two new inspiring women artists: Kate MccGwire (this post on HiFructose sums it up well) whose work I found unnerving and mildly discomforting, why I cannot say. The beauty of the feathers contrast against both the oversized slug-like or monstrous form and in some cases the horrid point of the quill which once pierced flesh. Some more of her work

Kate MccGwire

Kate MccGwire

Julie Hefferman also caught my imagination, Art Attack Online offer a good sample of her work though not really allowing it the kind of justice the full size paintings afford. Self portraits always win me over.

I was also very happy to see current work by Australian artist Patricia Piccinini who I briefly studied whilst at University late 90s. More of the grotesque, Patricia was one of the first prevalent Australian based digital artists, employing computer rendering to create odd little monsters I remember the large scale work of Sophie Lee cradling one happily like it was her baby. The billboard size print of this welcomed visitors who had just disembarked from a possible 24 hour journey to Sydney’s Kingsford Smith Airport. It was in the walk between the aeroplane and passport control. I found that a really odd choice for an initial representation of Australian culture. Piccinini has now moved on from the printed media and creates life like monsters instead. Disarming and alarming, I could not look for very long. Here is her website with a great summary of her work and statement Patricia Piccinini

Patricia Piccinini

I also enjoyed the collection of unusual curiosities; butterflies and beetles and rhinoceros horns, tortoise shells – some incredible examples of nature’s natural aesthetics.

MN from fun bubble on Vimeo.

Thanks Dangerous Minds

Tonight I walked the long way to pick up Oliver from school, following the river through the forest. The song JF and I got married to accompanied me on the ipod ( 4 years today I love you immensely x) The sky was bright and there were beautiful streaks of peach, crimson and red cloud. The moon was crisp and almost full – it sat like a giant silver disc against a dark blue night and I could see part of the man in it. I was cold, my nose was frozen but, I was happy to be there.

A little hunched back lady walked towards me approaching from a path opposite, about 50 meters to my left. As I watched her the sky filled with ravens, they settled around her on the ground and the trees above her. As she continued walking, they stayed behind and started crowing. She turned and yelled something to them, I couldn’t quite make out what she said. It was a bizarre sight.

I came to the Lac Dausmenil with about 15 minutes to spare and I sat in the light of the moon and watched a second hunched back lady feeding breadcrumbs to about a dozen white swans. She was taunting them in French. Swans are feisty and they fought each other for their share of bread.  Lac Dausmenil is magic. I have a short video of it I will post it maybe.

I was late to pick up Oliver. We came home, he played Skylanders while I cooked and he then fell asleep at the table whilst we ate dinner.

We are both still jet lagged.

The song JF and I got married to Awakening of a Woman by Cinematic Orchestra

The exhibition was supposed to be quite shocking but I guess because I’ve seen alot of the work before in books or wherever, they lost some of the shock value. For me the most confronting was the series of bombs.

Raphaël Dallaporta, from the Antipersonnel series

Raphaël Dallaporta‘s landmines come in all shapes and guises. They are framed and lighted like precious jewelry, French perfumes or rare beetles. It’s only when you look at the labels that accompany them that you realize they are instruments of death and dismemberment. “The US is the country that does the most to remove landmines,” explained the photographer, noting the source of one of them. “But the US is also a big manufacturer of them. Imagine a cigarette manufacturer being praised for making nicotine patches.” We Make Money Not Art

It definitely looked to me like the wealthier countries had the prettier bombs.

I really liked Bruce Davidson‘s series East 100th Street, but I did not like the sleazy looking man with a video camera hogging the space in front and around them so was not able to immerse myself as much as I would liked to have. I’d not heard of Bruce but will definitely come back to him and that series, I am a self confessed voyeur so I find photos providing a peek into another’s home and immediate environment, compelling.

Thanks to We Make Money Not Art for the links and stuff. I’ve missed loads that I really loved but I forgot my pen and notebook so didn’t take note. Oh, the bodybuilders collaged with the butterflies, superb! And always a pleasure to see a Pierre et Gilles. As always, after I have left an exhibition I immediately want to go back for a second look.

More pics if you fancy clicking through but are of an ‘erotic’ nature so may not appeal to some…..

Bill Brandt

Claude Alexandre, Untitled, 1982. From the series Fétiche, 1980 - 1989