PARIS.- Maison Européenne de la Photographie opened an exhibiton featuring photographs made by David McDermott and Peter McGough . McDermott and McGough have become well known for their unique way of blending art and daily life. Their photography involves appropriating images and objects from the late 19th century, and they project an image of themselves as gentlemen. Like their lifestyle, their photographs and paintings betoken a refusal to embrace the historical present. This obsession with the past is reflected in the subjects and styles they choose to bring back to life. Their work is a contemporary artistic performance. The retrospective brings together all the photographic works produced by David McDermott and Peter McGough over the past twenty years.

David McDermott was born in 1952 in Hollywood, California. He studied at Syracuse University, New York from 1970 to 1974. Peter McGough was born in 1958 in Syracuse, and studied at the same university in 1976. Their paths never crossed until they both moved to New York City some years later. Major exhibitions of their work include the one at the Frankfurter Kunstverein in 1988 and the Whitney Biennale in New York in 1987, 1991 and 1995. In 1997 they presented a retrospective at the Provincial Museum Voor Moderne Kunst in Ostend, Belgium. They live and work in New York and Dublin.

David McDermott and Peter McGough were both born in the USA and met in the early 80s on the New York art scene. They have since become well known for their way of blending art and daily life. Their photography involves appropria- ting images and objects from the late 19th century, and they project an image of themselves as gentlemen, posing as erudite, impertinent characters.

In this way they have chosen to immerse themselves in their preferred period: the Victorian era at the close of the 19th century. Like their lifestyle, their photographs and paintings betoken a flat refusal to embrace the historical present. This obsession with the past is reflected in the subjects and styles they bring back to life, and in the precise fictional dates they give to their works. Among the subjects they approach are popular and high-brow art and culture, religion, and sexual behaviour. The personal dimension of their work makes it into a deliberately provocative and controversial contemporary artistic performance dealing with political and sociological issues.

This retrospective presents all of the photographic works of McDermott and McGough. These highly original works uses several photographic techniques from the 19th century such as Palladium, gum bichromate and cyanotype.