Sophie Calle

Sophie Calle is a french writer who uses photography as a means of documentation. When i first came across Calle I was immediately fascinated with her work. Mostly by the subject matter, her work is based around the same aspect of evidence of human presence I employ with my work.

The series I find most intriguing of Calle's work is, "The Hotel" mainly because of the sense of legitimacy behind the photographs. She was hired as a chamber maid in a hotel in Venice which allowed her access to the rooms of all of the guests. With this freedom she documented, in writing and with the use of photography, different belongings she found within the rooms. Being the chamber maid she was allowed an insight into how the guests lived as things were left untouched exactly how the guest had left it. After she had collected the images she arranged them in these 3/3 grids.

Her work links to the work I did for my A-Level Photography course, documenting decaying buildings, however it is much more intimate. The work I did was about building up a character however there was a lack of evidence to create accuracy in this so it was more of a fictional fantasy. By photographing current belongings positioned by the actual people she creates frankness in her work.

"For each room there was a photograph of the bed undone, of other objects in the room, and a description day by day of what I found there." - Sophie Calle