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Laurent Garbit photographic expo at Agnès B. made possible by DuPont™ SentryGlas® Expressions™ decorative interlayers
Admired French photographer and artist Laurent Garbit used SentryGlas®
Expressions™ decorative interlayers for panoramic landscape exhibits for an Agnès
B. photographic exhibition that debuted in Marseille in late 2003.
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| "Berfack Kinken's prettiest holiday snaps" by Laurent Garbit, displayed at Agnès B. high-fashion clothing stores worldwide. |
Press attaché at Agnès B.'s Paris HQ, Stéphane
Guyonnet, confirmed: "From a technical point of view the images,
as well as the way they are presented, represent something utterly new.
Each panoramic photo (up to 270 cm long by 50 cm in height) is actually
made up of more than 30 digital photos that are "melted together"
in length on the computer to make up a unified whole. The prints are then
laminated into glass using SentryGlas® Expressions™ technology
and hung, due the strength of the laminated glass, using just three drilled
point fixings with aluminum clips."
"State-of-the-art panoramic photography made possible",
says Garbit
The exhibition is teasingly entitled "Berfack Kinken's prettiest
vacation snaps." Kinken is a fictional character invented by Laurent
Garbit. In an imaginary conversation between the photographer and 'Kinken',
Garbit asks: "The way these photos were mounted represent something
pretty new technically – could you tell us about that?"
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| Panoramic photographs of 270 cm in length, mounted
at the exhibition's opening in Marseille, France in October
2003. |
'Kinken' responds: "Yes, this can truly be called state
of the art panoramic photography. I mean, these images could not have
been created and mounted 15 years ago. We needed a printing method that
was utterly new. DuPont has invented a new photographic printing procedure
whereby digital photography can be expressed within laminated glass at
outstandingly high quality. The glass industry is really helping artists
and designers today with new and innovative ideas. And glass is one of
the most fashionable materials in contemporary urban architecture. So
I guess these photos are like suspended windows, really, showing you a
certain view of the world."
Several of the photos feature a solitary man looking directly and almost
questioningly, at the camera. He standing against a backdrop of stunningly
beautiful, wild and untouched coastline, south of Sénegal.
Laurent Garbit told said: "When you can show a 180 degree landscape
view to such perfection It's both surreal and breathtaking; it takes
language to its ultimate limit, which is silence. I hope that my photographs
lead visitors to a reflective silence that moves them. My goal was that
the simplicity of the photos, and the solitary nature of the scenery,
should make people reflect on our world as it has become today, and on
life in general. The title of the exhibition is ironic because contemporary
art has moved far away from "pretty" vacation snaps where
everyone is smiling happily. Most people today no longer feel that the
world is like that.
"Using digital photography, Photoshop software, Quick Time computer
movie technology, standard photographic editing techniques - and of course
SentryGlas® Expressions™ technology - we were able to fix these
souvenirs or memories of a fictional character into 4 mm thick laminated
glass to make them permanent.
"What is new here is the length of the panoramic photography; 270
cm in length is breaking new boundaries in photographic display and mounting
these images in the glass was only possible by using SentryGlas® Expressions™ technology combined with the strength of laminated glass. The effect of these 180-degree views is actually quite
magical. The print reproduction quality is amazingly good and the photos
are even magnified and made more attractive by being laminated into glass.
We selected a translucent white background because the photos will be
wall-mounted in various Agnès B. stores worldwide."
First SentryGlas® Expressions™ application in France
The photos were laminated by glass specialist V2S Vitrages de Sécurité
du Sud of Narbonne, France. Sales manager Christian Vignozzi said: "We
were proud to have completed the first application of
SentryGlas® Expressions™ in France. The use of SentyGlas®
Expressions™ has really enhanced and shown the work of M. Garbit
to full advantage in several ways. First, the laminated glass protects
these art photos, which are going to be transported throughout the world
and exposed in the setting of fashion stores, where they could be damaged
more easily, perhaps, than in regular art galleries. Second, SentryGlas® Expressions™
technology enabled the team of artist, glass laminator and DuPont to render
these amazingly beautiful photographs with exceptionally accurate color
tone reproduction due to the use of ink-jet printing technology; the pigmentation
is very good. There is no way this job could have been executed using
a traditional technology like screen-printing.
"From this experience we can testify that SentryGlas® Expressions™
is an utterly new and incredible technology. We know that it is the only
way we could have laminated M. GarbIt's photographic images into
the glass at the high resolution (1,440 dpi) and high quality required
by the artist.
"Specialists from DuPont came and explained the basic technology
to us. Then M. Garbit e-mailed his images to DuPont, which sent him samples
to check and modify as necessary. It was particularly challenging to get
sharp resolution since each of the seven photos are made up of 30 digital
photos in order to get the extraordinary length of the resulting panoramic
view. DuPont then shipped us the PVB, printed with the photographs and
cut to size. An additional challenge is that we had to use laminated tempered
glass for added strength because of the three holes drilled into the top
of the frames for the hanging. We are proud of the results and we believe
that M. Garbit and Agnès B. are both highly satisfied.
"Much faster than screen printing"
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| French art photographer Laurent Garbit. |
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"I see great potential for this technology for building façades
and interior design, especially now that our architectural customers are
asking us increasingly for solutions for decorative glass.
SentryGlas® Expressions™ is a great solution for these architects.
It is completely different from screen printing because you have an infinitely
better (higher resolution, higher quality) rendering of the image, with
many more colors, the process is very clean and It's using ink-jet
printing quality. You have much greater flexibility for smaller (e.g.
"one-off") jobs like these individual photos of M. Garbit,
and the production process for the laminator, once the digital images
were finally approved by the artist, was much faster than anything I have
experienced with the screen printing process.
"Another significant advantage of SentryGlas® Expressions™
versus screen printing is that high quality images of the photographs
as they would actually look, laminated into glass, could be e-mailed to
all the parties concerned. We could view the end result in advance and
the artist could make corrections by e-mail before the production process
started. With screen-printing you only see mistakes after the job is completed
– and then It's too late!
"We have been producing laminated glass incorporating DuPont products
for 13 years, since the formation of our company, but what made this job
special is that we were incorporating the work of an art photographer
into the glass. I see SentryGlas® Expressions™ technology as opening up even
great possibilities for the expansion of our architectural glass business."
The future: more photos used in building façades?
Photographer Laurent Garbit continued: "I am very interested in
working more with architects using SentryGlas® Expressions™,
for example to incorporate graphic design into the façades of buildings.
It could be a contemporary way to renew the ornamental beauty of architecture.
In the past, the results of this kind of job, using screen-printing, were
sometimes disappointing because they lacked finesse. Now that ink jet
printing technology can be incorporated the possibilities are endless!"
VS2's Vignozzi agreed: "Previously, glass was simply a way
of filling up a space or hole in a building façade – to keep
draughts out and to let in light. Then architects started using it in
the 1980s and 1990s to protect the inhabitants of buildings from solar
build-up and for security purposes. Now the trend is to use decorative
architectural glass in both interior and exterior applications."
Agnès B.'s Guyonnet summed up: "The press and the
public know that our Parisian fashion house has an excellent reputation
for mounting artistically and technically innovative photographic exhibits
as part of the "Point d'Ironie" (Ironic Views) series,
whereby we have hosted over 30 of the world's greatest photographers'
works at our stores over the past few years. Thanks to SentryGlas®
Expressions™ decorative laminated glass technology, the Laurent
Garbit exhibition is no exception to that rule."
Speed and flexibility
DuPont™ SentryGlas® Expressions™ decorative interlayers
are digitally printed in full-color using patent-pending, high definition
ink jet and PVB interlayer technology. The result is high quality imagery
and design textures in safety glass, with remarkably reduced, design-to-design
production time, increased flexibility in image customization and continuous
tone control. The technology is available on industry-proven PVB interlayers,
ranging from white to clear.
SentryGlas® Expressions™ technology enables textures, company
logos and images to be incorporated into a range of architectural glass
applications such as entry doors, overhead glazing, balustrades and office
partitions –while also conferring the many benefits of laminated
glass including safety, security, excellent outdoor weatherability, protection
from UV rays, noise reduction and solar/thermal control.
Custom-designed architectural glass with more than a million shades and
nuances of color can be made using SentryGlas® Expressions™
decorative interlayers, with digital printing precision up to 1,440 dots
per inch (dpi). Complex images such as color photographs can be reproduced
with sensational effect.
Laminators, architects and designers send their original artwork to DuPont
as transparencies or as high-resolution graphics made with software like
Photoshop, Illustrator or Quark Express. DuPont then prints the proofs,
which are then sent back to the customer for approval. Following approval,
a digitally printed interlayer is shipped to the glass laminator for manufacture
according to the customer's functional specifications.
Laurent Garbit is an art photographer of worldwide renown. Agnès
B. is a leading high fashion store chain with boutiques in all continents
of the world. VS2 is a French architectural glass laminator founded in
1990 specializing in both security and decorative laminated glass.
DuPont Glass Laminating Solutions provides materials, technology and
services in support of safer, quieter and more resource-efficient buildings
and vehicles. The business offers the glass industry's widest range
of interlayer choices including unique high strength and visual design
solutions. DuPont Glass Laminating Solutions sales are reported as part
of DuPont's US$ 5 billion Performance Materials growth platform
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