[Applause]
hello hello so today I’m going to give
you two examples I’m going to show you
two bodies of work two photographic
series that I’ve developed over the past
decade and the reason why I want to show
you two examples is to make one simple
point and that’s to say that there’s
never one representation that can kind
of say it all and it is really in the
multiplying of stories of
representations related to one topic
that we can begin to kind of counter
certain kind of in in deep and grounded
stereotypes and so I have focused on
talking about topics related to aging
and photography is I you know it’s my
main tool and I think of photography as
a way to kind of engage with my
surroundings I use it as a tool to meet
new people to try and look at things in
new ways and to try and challenge myself
as well to to really get into a way of
of engaging with my own surroundings the
society that I’m part of and population
I mean we all use photography as a tool
today not just in our mobile phones but
we use photography as a tool to
understand and negotiate our own
identities to kind of see who we are and
and and also to process phenomenon such
as aging and speaking of aging
population aging has been happening for
a long time it’s not something new and
it’s a phenomenon that has been going on
but the reason why I’m mentioning it is
because in 2020 the European population
will consist of 25%
of elderly people over 60 years old and
this is a massive change in the
population structure which will affect
the way that society kind of functions
not only on an individual level but also
on the kind of more social welfare state
systems and it also makes it in you know
at this idea of aging into a political
question today because there will be a
large pool of voters of a certain age so
I’ve been I’ve been looking at different
topics over many years and I think the
reason why I chose to do it is because
since we’re living in a society that is
so much based on this idea that we use
visual references in order to understand
what we’re part of if we live in a
society where we don’t have any visual
references this is something that we
need to kind of how is this going to
impact us how is it going to affect the
way that we actually understand the
notion and these ideas prompt me to
spend three years photographing in a
geriatric ward in France which is home
to elderly people with Alzheimer’s
disease and getting access to this
hospital was really just the first part
but it allowed me to get a kind of a
lived account of a first-hand account of
what life within an institution might
actually mean and the residents in this
specific Ward which is called protective
Ward it’s ruled according to the
principle of precaution which is a
medical policy that most of us will
probably never have heard of but the
principle precaution essentially means
that because of the nature of a specific
disease having a tendency to wander
about and potentially get lost which is
a serious thing that we need to kind of
address the residents within
the ward are confined meaning that you
have a locked door that that separates
them from the rest of the hospital and
ruling a court you know according to
this principle of precaution the
residents are free to move around within
the ward but due to a lack of activities
and the limited amount of carers in the
ward
they are also kind of left to themselves
and this door becomes the center of
attention which causes an obstruction
and and and makes the residents question
it and which means that there could be a
quite a lot of time every day focusing
on on on this obstruction and they also
so I’m just going to go through a few of
these slides so while giving a vision of
what life in a geriatric ward might mean
I mean in a way it’s conveniently hidden
from us because as we go about our
everyday lives we don’t necessarily want
to think about these things my I tend to
try and always kind of Center my work
around the body and the idea of of
focusing on the body is also meaning
that we are confronting certain
problematic elements this idea of a
failing body is something that we in the
West don’t seem to be able to accept so
quite you know i natural phenomenons
such as disease aging and dying
represent big taboos today which makes
it very hard for us to confront visually
and I think for a lot of reasons I try
to just give a visual account of a
phenomenon that we are needing to face
today and while giving a vision of what
aging in an institution might mean
I’m also very keen to really point out
that this is a specific ward although
this medical policy is really implied
you know implemented throughout Europe
and the Western world every ward is of
course unique and special and I think
the problem with photography sometimes
is that we and it has this really
immediate it’s grabbing something from
the rear of the real world and it’s
making it into something else and it is
in this transition where sometimes ideas
such as representation and truth become
problematic and this is why I think we
need a multi to multiply really our our
accounts when talking about subject and
I was prompted to to really think about
these notions and and also kind of maybe
to push it because images and words are
symbolic representations that are
processed in different parts of the
human brain and so scientists believe
that the part that processes the visual
information is evolutionary older than
the partner that processes words
so therefore images should be allowed to
to really evoke a deeper sense of
emotion and affect us more deeply so
with this in mind when we’re using
photographs why try to use them to try
to kind of write in images don’t we fail
to kind of exploit the the real power of
the photographic tool if we do that so
as I was kind of confronted with these
feelings because essentially as this
project was published and and exhibited
across different countries I was also I
was pleased because I was allowed to
kind of able to
encourage a debate but at the same time
I also felt like I was complying with
certain media rules related to talking
about the elderly
since this topic was essentially kind of
depressing and sort of negative and I
was really trying to find ways of
questioning you know if to myself as
well was a way for me to nuance the
picture despite the fact of wanting to
make a very specific point about a
specific situation and so my my solution
was really to try and just make several
stories which brought me here to these
two individuals it might be a long shot
but I’m trying to explain modeun Manette
malroux are identical twins and they
live in Paris I first saw them on the
streets of Paris and I was immediately
fascinated by their kind of obviously in
identical clothes synchronized body
language and I found them really
fascinating in the way that they come to
stood out from any crowd they seemed to
really enjoy the attention that they
were getting and Madame Annette have
spent their whole lives being performers
but in later years they’ve kind of
turned Performing element and brought it
into their everyday lives so if you walk
the streets of Paris don’t be surprised
to to come across this vision and Madine
Wynette’s I mean I approach them and
gradually we have begun to collaborate
and to work together and Medina Burnett
often reject many of my ideas and that’s
completely fine because I want the
counter kind of represent their own
vision of themselves in the world and I
also because this idea of performing is
really a part of their everyday life now
and they also kind of have turned their
own image into their profession as they
work for advertising and they do play
roles in films I wanted to have them
pose for me as a natural part of the
project and the streets of Paris it
serves as a kind of a confusing element
referencing you know having all sorts of
references to Paris of film and art and
fashion which makes this mixture of
having pictures of them going about
their everyday business and me just you
know having photographs more set up
we’re creating this space in between and
which makes the kind of documentation of
everyday events and what’s surreal now
the question is why is it surreal and
one answer is kind of obvious of course
it makes us really fascinating for us as
Midea Minette would call us singular
people to witness how one identity sort
of expands across two bodies and it
makes us really enter into a
conversation with ourselves and makes us
aware of the limitations of our own
identity and how we’re kind of
constantly in conversation with
ourselves however there’s another part
of this work that I find important to
point out and it is that really in the
layering of performance or fiction
Madine Minette are creating a space
where we as viewers can confront
difficult topics or
difficult topics so just you know having
this body kind of aging and slowly maybe
meeting this notion of maybe not being
around anymore dare I say it and dying
but as they do it that kind of the the
doer that they have created their
identical clothes the synchronized body
language the amount of humor that they
kind of present themselves with allow us
to confront difficult notions and to
kind of um you know sidestep these these
pre preconceptions that we kind of
unconsciously employ as we see a woman
of a certain age on the streets so since
they kind of really have found a way to
sidestep this they also invite us into a
place of safe place where we are allowed
to think of difficult topics without
without this notion of a fear or
difficulty and this was something that I
wanted to really achieve and of course
medine Manette’s say that they do it for
the humor they really enjoy this is you
know receiving attention and I think as
I come in and I know I kind of
reinforced the message that they have
put on the show that they put on
themselves as i reinforce it I also
allow them to reach a larger audience in
many ways and performative and
photography is often kind of considered
two notions of you know two different
spectrums one being a live medium and
the other one being a static object but
if you think of the photograph as a
performance speech act or a conversation
then you can be allowed to focus on what
the photograph actually does and how it
affects its viewer and I think that this
is an important notion that we need to
take with us today when you know so much
of the world focuses around you know
image sharing an image making
I think the the real challenge for me as
an image maker today is to find ways to
enter into conversation with a wide
audience about these difficult topics
because we really need to try and find
ways to talk about taboos and difficult
subjects and in order to kind of really
disarm them and to engage with them so that’s it for me thank you
hello hello so today I’m going to give
you two examples I’m going to show you
two bodies of work two photographic
series that I’ve developed over the past
decade and the reason why I want to show
you two examples is to make one simple
point and that’s to say that there’s
never one representation that can kind
of say it all and it is really in the
multiplying of stories of
representations related to one topic
that we can begin to kind of counter
certain kind of in in deep and grounded
stereotypes and so I have focused on
talking about topics related to aging
and photography is I you know it’s my
main tool and I think of photography as
a way to kind of engage with my
surroundings I use it as a tool to meet
new people to try and look at things in
new ways and to try and challenge myself
as well to to really get into a way of
of engaging with my own surroundings the
society that I’m part of and population
I mean we all use photography as a tool
today not just in our mobile phones but
we use photography as a tool to
understand and negotiate our own
identities to kind of see who we are and
and and also to process phenomenon such
as aging and speaking of aging
population aging has been happening for
a long time it’s not something new and
it’s a phenomenon that has been going on
but the reason why I’m mentioning it is
because in 2020 the European population
will consist of 25%
of elderly people over 60 years old and
this is a massive change in the
population structure which will affect
the way that society kind of functions
not only on an individual level but also
on the kind of more social welfare state
systems and it also makes it in you know
at this idea of aging into a political
question today because there will be a
large pool of voters of a certain age so
I’ve been I’ve been looking at different
topics over many years and I think the
reason why I chose to do it is because
since we’re living in a society that is
so much based on this idea that we use
visual references in order to understand
what we’re part of if we live in a
society where we don’t have any visual
references this is something that we
need to kind of how is this going to
impact us how is it going to affect the
way that we actually understand the
notion and these ideas prompt me to
spend three years photographing in a
geriatric ward in France which is home
to elderly people with Alzheimer’s
disease and getting access to this
hospital was really just the first part
but it allowed me to get a kind of a
lived account of a first-hand account of
what life within an institution might
actually mean and the residents in this
specific Ward which is called protective
Ward it’s ruled according to the
principle of precaution which is a
medical policy that most of us will
probably never have heard of but the
principle precaution essentially means
that because of the nature of a specific
disease having a tendency to wander
about and potentially get lost which is
a serious thing that we need to kind of
address the residents within
the ward are confined meaning that you
have a locked door that that separates
them from the rest of the hospital and
ruling a court you know according to
this principle of precaution the
residents are free to move around within
the ward but due to a lack of activities
and the limited amount of carers in the
ward
they are also kind of left to themselves
and this door becomes the center of
attention which causes an obstruction
and and and makes the residents question
it and which means that there could be a
quite a lot of time every day focusing
on on on this obstruction and they also
so I’m just going to go through a few of
these slides so while giving a vision of
what life in a geriatric ward might mean
I mean in a way it’s conveniently hidden
from us because as we go about our
everyday lives we don’t necessarily want
to think about these things my I tend to
try and always kind of Center my work
around the body and the idea of of
focusing on the body is also meaning
that we are confronting certain
problematic elements this idea of a
failing body is something that we in the
West don’t seem to be able to accept so
quite you know i natural phenomenons
such as disease aging and dying
represent big taboos today which makes
it very hard for us to confront visually
and I think for a lot of reasons I try
to just give a visual account of a
phenomenon that we are needing to face
today and while giving a vision of what
aging in an institution might mean
I’m also very keen to really point out
that this is a specific ward although
this medical policy is really implied
you know implemented throughout Europe
and the Western world every ward is of
course unique and special and I think
the problem with photography sometimes
is that we and it has this really
immediate it’s grabbing something from
the rear of the real world and it’s
making it into something else and it is
in this transition where sometimes ideas
such as representation and truth become
problematic and this is why I think we
need a multi to multiply really our our
accounts when talking about subject and
I was prompted to to really think about
these notions and and also kind of maybe
to push it because images and words are
symbolic representations that are
processed in different parts of the
human brain and so scientists believe
that the part that processes the visual
information is evolutionary older than
the partner that processes words
so therefore images should be allowed to
to really evoke a deeper sense of
emotion and affect us more deeply so
with this in mind when we’re using
photographs why try to use them to try
to kind of write in images don’t we fail
to kind of exploit the the real power of
the photographic tool if we do that so
as I was kind of confronted with these
feelings because essentially as this
project was published and and exhibited
across different countries I was also I
was pleased because I was allowed to
kind of able to
encourage a debate but at the same time
I also felt like I was complying with
certain media rules related to talking
about the elderly
since this topic was essentially kind of
depressing and sort of negative and I
was really trying to find ways of
questioning you know if to myself as
well was a way for me to nuance the
picture despite the fact of wanting to
make a very specific point about a
specific situation and so my my solution
was really to try and just make several
stories which brought me here to these
two individuals it might be a long shot
but I’m trying to explain modeun Manette
malroux are identical twins and they
live in Paris I first saw them on the
streets of Paris and I was immediately
fascinated by their kind of obviously in
identical clothes synchronized body
language and I found them really
fascinating in the way that they come to
stood out from any crowd they seemed to
really enjoy the attention that they
were getting and Madame Annette have
spent their whole lives being performers
but in later years they’ve kind of
turned Performing element and brought it
into their everyday lives so if you walk
the streets of Paris don’t be surprised
to to come across this vision and Madine
Wynette’s I mean I approach them and
gradually we have begun to collaborate
and to work together and Medina Burnett
often reject many of my ideas and that’s
completely fine because I want the
counter kind of represent their own
vision of themselves in the world and I
also because this idea of performing is
really a part of their everyday life now
and they also kind of have turned their
own image into their profession as they
work for advertising and they do play
roles in films I wanted to have them
pose for me as a natural part of the
project and the streets of Paris it
serves as a kind of a confusing element
referencing you know having all sorts of
references to Paris of film and art and
fashion which makes this mixture of
having pictures of them going about
their everyday business and me just you
know having photographs more set up
we’re creating this space in between and
which makes the kind of documentation of
everyday events and what’s surreal now
the question is why is it surreal and
one answer is kind of obvious of course
it makes us really fascinating for us as
Midea Minette would call us singular
people to witness how one identity sort
of expands across two bodies and it
makes us really enter into a
conversation with ourselves and makes us
aware of the limitations of our own
identity and how we’re kind of
constantly in conversation with
ourselves however there’s another part
of this work that I find important to
point out and it is that really in the
layering of performance or fiction
Madine Minette are creating a space
where we as viewers can confront
difficult topics or
difficult topics so just you know having
this body kind of aging and slowly maybe
meeting this notion of maybe not being
around anymore dare I say it and dying
but as they do it that kind of the the
doer that they have created their
identical clothes the synchronized body
language the amount of humor that they
kind of present themselves with allow us
to confront difficult notions and to
kind of um you know sidestep these these
pre preconceptions that we kind of
unconsciously employ as we see a woman
of a certain age on the streets so since
they kind of really have found a way to
sidestep this they also invite us into a
place of safe place where we are allowed
to think of difficult topics without
without this notion of a fear or
difficulty and this was something that I
wanted to really achieve and of course
medine Manette’s say that they do it for
the humor they really enjoy this is you
know receiving attention and I think as
I come in and I know I kind of
reinforced the message that they have
put on the show that they put on
themselves as i reinforce it I also
allow them to reach a larger audience in
many ways and performative and
photography is often kind of considered
two notions of you know two different
spectrums one being a live medium and
the other one being a static object but
if you think of the photograph as a
performance speech act or a conversation
then you can be allowed to focus on what
the photograph actually does and how it
affects its viewer and I think that this
is an important notion that we need to
take with us today when you know so much
of the world focuses around you know
image sharing an image making
I think the the real challenge for me as
an image maker today is to find ways to
enter into conversation with a wide
audience about these difficult topics
because we really need to try and find
ways to talk about taboos and difficult
subjects and in order to kind of really
disarm them and to engage with them so that’s it for me thank you
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