Olivier Meyer

From Street-Photography to Street-Art

1988: Olivier Meyer took a photograph of Mouna Aguigui sticking his tongue out like Albert Einstein.

The famous photograph of Albert Einstein on his 72nd birthday taken by Arthur Sasse was reproduced on the front page of the fanzine Le Mouna Frère. Mouna was a sort of anarcho-ecolo-nonconformist who used to harangue crowds of students in the Latin Quarter; he was regularly standing for election in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, although never elected.

The same year, the photograph was published without the photographer’s consent in a book called Aguigui Mouna written by Anne Gallois, he was not informed, his name was not mentioned and the photograph had been cropped.

1989: The photograph was edited by Editions Marion Valentine as a postcard with the appropriate copyright.

Mouna gave his consent for the publication, specifying in a post scriptum that his real name was "Dupont", but not "DuPont de Nemours". He told Olivier Meyer at the time that Albert Einstein had sent him the photograph by Arthur Sasse, and that Albert Einstein had also agreed to be a member of his “Club des Aguiguistes”.

2006: Olivier Meyer discovered that a well-known street-art artist, Jef Aérosol, had used in 2006 his photograph as a blueprint, to make a painting on canvas, subsequently reproduced in his book VIP (he did not know who was the author of the photograph). Olivier Meyer gave him a retroactive authorization to use his photograph, in return he was authorized to use the visual of his painting... and tell the story of this photograph, from street-photography to street-art.

2012: The photograph appeared again in its original form in the book Paris Nothing new together with 28 photographs of Paris.

2014: The photograph was made available on Wikimedia Commons and used on Wikipedia.