JEAN-JACQUES DICKER ÅMPTY ROOMS Organised By Photoarchives, Ides Et Calendes, M+M Auer Eirmos Gallery For Genevan photographer Jean-Jacques Dicker adventure and a taste for travel are both a personal penchant and a matter of family history. It all began in the interwar period, with the emigre Pitoeff family, their seven children (including Jean-Jacques' mother) and their multiple voyages - Geneva, Paris, Hollywood, Hawaii. Set off, look around, come back, set off once again… It was in Africa in 1976 that he really began to practise photography. He wanted to capture the colours, the beauty, the simplicity. And the hotel rooms he slept in. Havens of peace after long dusty days, the heat, the humidity, the cold, the problems at every turn: these hotel rooms were pure paradise. To open a door and walk in is a bit like coming into harbour, safe and sound. Alone, happy, a sense of peace before new adventures in the unknown, for he hopes that the voyage will continue, will be long, and will be fruitful in discoveries. At the same time, these rooms are pauses, they will not last, they are interim stops, places he likes to photograph because in a certain manner they will always be his, captured on his film. And then, the souvenirs, the encounters with people, travelling companions, solitude, passion, happy moments and sad. These pictures of hotel rooms are largely taken on his arrival in the room. What is it like? Colours? Lighting? Even exhausted, his arms heavy with fatigue, he takes out his tripod, cameras, lenses, photometer, and on with the dance practised by photographers all over the world. He sees, he likes what he sees, he likes what he does. Sometimes he stays a few days or even a few months in a room, which allows him to indulge in games with time, colour, and the effects of the changing light over succeeding hours. Let us share his fascination with these oases, these red light houses in which he lived, slept, photographed. As a witness, he knew how to subdue the setting, even in the photographs posed, to maintain the essential: the non-stated. Michele Auer