"During pregnancy, the exchange of cells between mother and child is a two-way process: fetal cells migrate into the mother's organs and remain there for life. This phenomenon, known as cellular chimerism, inspired the photographic project 22 Loggerstraat, Zaandam, which explores the bonds between three generations of women. The images, taken at my grandmother's home in the Netherlands, reenact our daily life using hyperrealistic masks cast from our own faces. Echoing chimerism, we swap faces with one another: I become my mother, my mother becomes my grandmother, my grandmother becomes me, and so on. This circulation raises questions about how we carry the other within us, how identity as something singular can be undone, and what happens when we become the women we have watched our whole lives. The images take the form of small tableaux inspired by Dutch genre painting, where the banality of everyday life, the repetition of gestures, and the arrangement of objects structure the space. The project thus sheds light on a silent transmission of the female condition, embedded in ordinary rituals and gestures. My grandfather's presence appears in the series a year later. Often set apart, his presence introduces a kind of incongruity and opens up a reflection on the place of the masculine within this circulation of identities."
Librairie 7L
The Librairie 7L was founded in 1999 by Karl Lagerfeld in Paris and acquired in 2021 by the House of CHANEL. The Librairie 7L celebrates its founder's unconditional love of books and photography. The 700-square-meter space brings together three activities: a bookshop devoted to new releases in the visual arts, the Correspondances cultural program dedicated to contemporary creation and presented within Karl Lagerfeld's former photo studio, and Éditions 7L. Together with Atelier EXB and the Villa Noailles, Éditions 7L launched the Grand Prix du jury de la Photographie 7L collection, offering a reflection on contemporary photography and bringing together the work of laureates from the Villa Noailles' International Festival of Fashion, Photography, and Accessories in Hyères, alongside texts offering multiple perspectives on the series presented by each laureate.