Research- Sophie Calle

Sophie Calle is an artist come photographer who I have long admired and it suddenly occurred to me how interesting she might be to look at. She has worked with text and imagery as well as exploring human nature, identity and challenging perceptions. There are various projects of hers that I can look at, but one that first came to mind was one she conducted in the 80s. She got residents of The Bronx in New York to take her to a location of their choice and then made a portrait of them there. She exhibitied with the accompanying text explaining why they'd taken her there and what it meant to them.


Another project that intrigues me is "Prenez soin de vous" which translate means "take care of yourself". The project started when her boyfriend of the time sent her an email that basically ended the relationship and had that at the end of it. She didn't know how to respond so she made a series of work based around it. She got over a hundred women to analyse the email and then made portraits with them.

It's an interesting project because it challenges self-perception and understanding of humans and our nature. She chose the women based on their profession which adds another dimension to it. It's a relevant project for my research because it shows that the boy obviously wanted to say these things, but opted to take the easy way out and do it online, thus not having to face a possible confrontation.

It shows a downside to the internet and the way our society operates. Her project emphasises both of these things. She exhibited it by putting the highlighted, written on, analysed email beneath each woman's portrait showing their response to it. It's an exhibit I would have loved to have seen. I'm actually going to get the book out of the library for further research on presentation and what she learnt.

The portraits from the series interest me as the subjects are usually holding, reading, or marking the email from her lover. It adds that personal touch and is different to the portraits I've looked at previously where the text element only comes into it beneath the work. Here, it is actively in the portrait too even though usually you can't see the work as it is facing them.


In terms of presenting my own work, I imagine I will come back and look at her work again as she has tried different ways of presenting it. Another one I saw, and apparently was there when she exhibitited this at Whitechapel, was to overlay the email on top of the portraits. It builds up that relationship and I love the look. The subject is reading it and you as a viewer get to do the same.


This might be an alternative to using an overheard projector to put the words onto people. Perhaps doing it in post-production, digitally, would be the easier option and means I can do portraits in places other than the studio.