The 2009 winner of our photo project went to Cambridge looking for the lingering memory of Syd Barrett, and came back with enough beautiful photos to make an exhibition and a book! Perhaps you’ll know Syd Barrett once you’ve seen them?

photos: Benoît Grimalt

Syd Barrett was a member of Pink Floyd for just four years in the early sixties, then after a long solo career that wasn’t always a raving success, he retired to Cambridge – on foot, the legend says – penniless to live with his mother.
Inspired by some of the songs he had heard on the radio, Benoît Grimalt decided to go to Cambridge, not really knowing what he would find. The photos he brought back are voluntarily random, showing a sleepy town that still remembers the slightly barmy musician, sometimes without really knowing why. If music lovers have a lingering memory of his work, the man himself was a notorious recluse and tried his best to be incognito.
Syd Barrett died alone. He had no money. The sadness of his life and death is somewhere in these shots, and begs questions about the link between happiness and wealth, madness and genius, and the impossibility of becoming no-one once you’ve really been someone.
For the exhibition, a limited edition book (600 copies) is being published by Poursuite Editions, priced 12€. Benoît will be at the opening of the exhibition on Friday 22nd January from 6.30pm to sign copies.

The Exhibition Do You Know Syd Barrett? by Benoît Grimalt is at the Librairie Photographique (here) from 21st January – 11th February 2010. Entrance free.

Benoît Grimalt’s official site: benoit.grimalt.free.fr