For several years, I spent my summers on a small island off the coast of Brittany. Juliette was my neighbor. Rather distant at first, she started coming to see me when she found out that I was a photographer. I later learned that her father, who had recently passed away, had taken a lot of pictures of her as a child, and that she used to love these moments with him.
Juliette wanted me to photograph her. Every morning at breakfast, Juliette would show up, sit next to me and wait for the shooting session to begin. I would fold the drying rack and move the furniture to improvise a studio on the small makeshift veranda built of bits and ends. Sometimes I would use the red wall in front of a neighbor’s house and use a parasol to soften the sunlight. The shooting sessions, more or less long, more or less intense depending on the day and our moods, became a daily ritual over time.
In front of the camera, Juliette has turned out to be a born actress. She loves to act, to dress up, to pose. I let myself be charmed by Juliette and her unique form of pantomime. Juliette is a tragicomic character who, like the « heads of character » sculpted by Messerschmidt, conveys an unvarnished expressiveness. She amuses and amazes me. She makes me laugh but she also annoys me when she overdoes it. And when she withdraws into herself with the look of a wise old person, she upsets me. Juliette moves me.