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FEATURE SOPHIE CALLE
all people, am about to disavow art that says ‘I’? Not quite: he wants for evidence, the same danger of discovery, the same carelessness (or
to know where the processing of pain ends and the real work begins. incompetence) regarding ‘good’ photographs. Later I had others take
Well, I say, this project: it was all about a letter, not about a man. It’s not the photos for me: the places where the stolen paintings had been for
as though I’ve spent the last two years agonising about this break-up. I Last Seen in 1991, the monochrome meals for The Chromatic Diet in
could recite the letter by heart, here, this instant, but it’s just a piece of 1997. This time, when I photographed each of the 107 women, I never
paper for me now. It’s a thing, to be interpreted. The project takes over. expected good photographs. But when I looked at the contact sheets,
But I need sincerity at the start. Years ago, another man, with whom I’d there they were. People said: be careful, you’re becoming a good
been living for seven years, left me. But I quickly felt better, and so there photographer. But maybe he, the journalist, thinks they’re really bad?
was no project. Early on, with Take care of yourself, when I knew it was a He shrugs. He thinks they’re great: especially the ones where the
good idea, I was afraid this man would come back to me. What then? I women photographed turn away, hide their faces. It started because
would inevitably choose him, and lose the project. certain professions – the cop, the judge, the woman from the secret
The phone rings. The journalist fiddles with his tape recorder service – couldn’t be recognised; then it became a style, not quite a
while I organise my next meeting, at noon, and ask the young woman rule. He wants to know about the photographs on my wall: the Diane
who is coming to see me to bring a copy of Libération: they have a short Arbus, the Nan Goldin, the montage by Linder Sterling that I bought
article today on my Venice project. a month ago. But I’m not really a collector. I like Cindy Sherman.
We carry on: he asks me what photography means to me now. I like classical photography. I remember photographs. When I think
What a question. I can’t answer. I know this: the pictures for Take care of of my father, I imagine a photograph. When I think of my mother,
yourself are pretty good. In the past the photographs were simply what I remember the last photograph I took of her before she died.
they were. In 1980, for Suite vénitienne, the photographs proved I had He asks about my memory; I tell him it’s awful, abyssal even. I read books
been there, following that man; the camera put me in the situation, made five times and still cannot recall the names of the characters.
me take the risk. That’s all. In The Hotel, three years later: the same need Everything here is in drawers and boxes, so I can find it. I have to write
ARTREVIEW seven.lintwo.lin
p067-073 Sophie Calle AR Jun07.i72 72 6/5/07 00:57:29
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