Portraits in Lace: Breton Women

Description

Charles Freger has photographed a series of portraits of Breton women wearing costumes and headdresses of endless variety: from high starched towers to elaborately pinned, tucked and embroidered confections of handmade lace, as delicate as they are distinctive. Costumes and headdresses may indicate a wearer's village, as well as age or status. They are worn for celebrations of a marriage, birth, or a local saint's day, or to mark a period of mourning. Young girls, women both married and unmarried, mothers, sisters and grandmothers pose in costume for these wonderful photographic portraits. Over 50 headdresses are introduced and described in a separate reference section, accompanied by specially commissioned illustrations. Freger's exceptional photographs demonstrate a wealth of pride and personal expression that make this book a unique testament to a living tradition.

Charles Freger is a photographer based in Rouen, France. Internationally acclaimed for his subtle and poetic portraiture, he has devoted himself to the representation of social groups. Previous books include Wilder Mann, published in 2012.

'The photographic approach is highly imaginative' - Royal Photographic Society Journal 'Here myth and ritual are replaced by tradition and meticulous craft as Freger turns his formalist gaze on the exclusively female traditional costumes of Brittany' - Observer 'Freger once again finds a set of individuals observing archaic customs in the modern world' - Amateur Photographer