PhotoSaintGermain-Des aveugles. La collection photographique de l’INJA

Des aveugles. The photographic collection of the INJA

Curated by: Léa Miranda

The history of photography begins, paradoxically, with a relief object. In 1827, Nicéphore Niépce covered a pewter plate with Judean bitumen to fix an image. That same plate could just as easily have been read by touch. Two years earlier, in 1825, Louis Braille, a student at the Institution Royale des Jeunes Aveugles (now INJA), devised a tactile reading system based on raised dots. Two tactile inventions, born almost simultaneously, that would transform how we access the visible.

Bringing together archival photographs and historical documents from the collection of the Institut national des jeunes aveugles (INJA), the exhibition explores the representations and pedagogical uses of the medium within the institution. From the late nineteenth century onward, photography documented teaching, vocational workshops, musical practice, and daily life for pupils. It also reveals the gaze cast upon blind and visually impaired people. The collection invites us to rethink the representation of visual impairment through the history of the medium and its developments.

This exhibition takes place within the framework of the PhotoSaintGermain festival. Organized in the heart of Paris, in the iconic Saint‐Germain‐des‐Prés neighborhood, PhotoSaintGermain is an annual festival dedicated to promoting photographic creation.

PhotoSaintGermain offers a free and freely accessible exhibition tour across a selection of museums, cultural centers, galleries, and bookstores on the Left Bank. This tour highlights a sharp and eclectic program designed by associated galleries, as well as several original exhibitions and novel projects imagined and produced by the festival.