Credit: "Chambre 207" Jean-Michel André

"Chambre 207", an exhibition and book by Jean-Michel André

04 October 2024 Alumni News

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Jean-Michel André graduated from the photography and video training program in 2001, and combines a visual and documentary approach in his work. Absence, lack and reparation are recurring themes in his photographic series. His work was notably exhibited at the Bibliothèque National de France last spring, as part of a major photojournalism commission.

" Chambre 207", his new photographic series, will be on view at the Musée de l'Hospice Comtesse as part of anoff-site exhibition organized by the Institut pour la photographie.

This autofictional photographic project, a veritable visual essay, reconstructs the photographer's lost memories following a traumatic childhood experience. Photography thus becomes a tool for reconstruction.

On August 5, 1983, Jean-Michel André's father was murdered along with six other people in a hotel in Avignon, as the family stopped off for the night on their way to a vacation. Jean-Michel André, 7 years old and present in the room next door, lost his memory in shock.

Several decades later, herevisits and photographs the places he passed through with his father. His photographs are supplemented by investigative material, press archives and family objects to create a collection that questions memory, mourning and reparation.

"Forty years later, I'm revisiting and photographing places I may have - or could have - crossed with my father.

with my father. I'm continuing the research I began ten years ago, opening many doors and collecting documents.

documents. The truth slips away, so I shift my gaze and scatter the horror

the horror to ward off the trauma".

Jean-Michel André

"Chambre 207" has just been published as a photographic book by Éditions

Actes Sud and will be the subject of a presentation by its author, followed by a signing session at the Cartier-Bresson foundation on Thursday October 10, 2024 at 7pm.