Last night was the grand opening and the awards ceremony for our exhibition “A hotel photo, an artist’s view” (2008 edition). This year’s prestigious venue is two rooms on the third floor of the Théâtre de l’Odéon; great views inside and out guaranteed ! Read our article to find out who won the two prizes, see the photos of the grand opening and even see the ‘making of’ movie!

photos : JasonW


After last year’s successful launch (despite a general transport strike in Paris that day), the evening of prize-giving (and champagne drinking!) for the 2008 edition of “A hotel photo, an artist’s view” went swimmingly last night!

It has to be said that we really had an impressive venue this year – the Théâtre de l’Odéon – which is just two steps from our Hôtel Jardin de l’Odéon.

To read all the details about the genesis of the photo project, the idea behind it and the prizes that are part of it, you can go to this page. And here are the names of the winners!

The staff of the hotels all vote to elect their favourite photo. The prize they give is now called the Virginie Clément prize, after one of our employees who died earlier this year after being with us for 15 years (tou can read our homage to Virginie here). Visibly quite moved, Corinne Moncelli announced the name of the winner: Morgane Com, who walked away with a three-litre bottle of Nicolas Feuillatte champagne.

And the winner of the Grand Prize, given by a jury of photo and art professionals (details here) is… Benoît Grimalt!

It was a unanimous vote by the jury and Benoît wins 3.000 euros! We hope the money will help him to continue developing his photographic talents.
To see all the photographers who were in the running for the prize, check out the gallery here.

Of course the grand opening and prizes are just the beginning of the exhibition that runs from Tuesday 7th October to 24th October 2008, Monday – Saturday from 1.30-6.30pm, and from 6.30pm exclusively for those attending a play at the theatre. You’ll be able to see not only the twelve photos from each month of 2007, but also a completely new specially-commissioned set of photos by Frédéric Lebain called “Décors for a ceremonial” which draws parallels between our hotels and the Théâtre de l’Odéon.

You can check out all the photos that Fréd has created for us here.

Just below you’ll find the mini slideshow of the hanging of the photos and the grand opening. To see them better in their Flickr gallery, click here. And don’t forget to go and see the exhibition at the Théâtre de l’Odéon!

BONUS ! The film of the making of!….