PhotoSaintGermain-Pierre-Jérôme Jehel : Une doublure d’invisible

Pierre‑Jérôme Jehel, Une doublure d’invisible

The exhibition is the outcome of a photographic residency at the Maison Auguste Comte, now a museum dedicated to the philosopher of positivism. This Parisian apartment has been preserved virtually as it was since 1841, when the philosopher moved in. Deeply attached to the place, he called it his "sacred home".

The photographer worked on the site and its photographic archives, inviting the public to perceive the profound dimension of this intimate territory through a dialogue between location, image, and memory.

Each series draws inspiration from a device echoing the invention of the photographic principle: lens focusing, contact printing, negative / positive, diffraction. This experimental, observational approach evokes the methodology and teaching that Auguste Comte carried out, notably in this apartment.

The archives are explored by considering the photographic object in its nature and uses: negatives in their materiality and transcription of the world, albums in a play on identity. The collection of portraits of the Positivist Society appears as a prophetic precursor to our own era, where self-images are exchanged and faces shape a social "profile".

The nineteenth century was swept by the breath of positivism, within which the invention of photography could be situated. Revealed to the world by physicist-astronomer François Arago, photography was perceived as access to scientific objectivity. Yet it immediately leaned toward artistic concerns. It is undoubtedly within this tension between apparent rationality and sensitive perception that one of the richest specificities of the photographic medium lies.

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.