“The beauty of natural countryside is never surpassed by anything created by the human imagination.” – Bernard Faucon

As New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) kicked off centennial celebrations, Bernard Faucon: The Most Beautiful Day of My Youth photographs were on display, November 14, 2010 through March 13, 2011. These 60 photographs depict one-­‐day celebrations of a festive and playful nature in 25 international sites, representing youths ranging from 15 to 20 years old from diverse social and cultural backgrounds.

“From Morocco to Japan, from Burma to Cuba, from Cambodia to Sweden… it seemed to me that this image of youth in the world resembled the festive and playful atmosphere of Happiness Regained, my first staged photographs taken 20 years before,” Faucon said.

Faucon is a Provence-born artist who helped pioneer the contemporary photographic tableaux vivant, a technique in which the subjects are required to hold their poses in near perfect stillness. Faucon deliberately stopped taking photos in 1995 and remained inactive until his creation of The Most Beautiful Day of My Youth.

Unlike his earlier works this exhibition was an expansive, collaborative, and universal collection that served as a primer for future use of this medium. The Most Beautiful Day of My Youth embodied the joys of youth and celebrated Faucon’s emphasis on the day-to-day and moment-to-moment, feeling he hopes to bestow upon this exhibition’s visitors.