Francis David

In 1978, Francis David discovered the home of Raymond Isidore, known as Picassiette (1900–1964). Intrigued by this total work of art, he undertook research that led him to discover other sites. From then on, he travelled the length and breadth of France for three weeks a year, for several consecutive years (from 1978 to 1992), in search of these unique folk art environments. He took over 10,000 photographs of these ephemeral installations in 150 different locations. This collection serves as a unique record of these sites, which had previously gone unrecorded and have since, for the most part, disappeared. The slides present overviews of the structures and portraits of the artists in situ, allowing the work to be presented as comprehensively as possible with a documentary aim. Following his meeting in 1997 with the LAM museum, dedicated to the conservation and accessibility of art brut, the photographer decided to entrust around 2,200 of his slides so that they could be digitised and used for museum and archival purposes.