by Jean-Marie Donat
La bella e la bestia (Beauty and the Beast) presents the same anonymous and historically connoted photograph , each time accompanied by a different caption. The image, seemingly stable and immutable, changes meaning with every new textual interpretation: what the viewer believes they are seeing is gradually directed, distorted, or even contradicted by the accompanying words. The photograph thus ceases to function as objective evidence and instead reveals itself as a fragile space, open to projection, interpretation, and appropriation.
The work reflects on the vulnerability of found and decontextualised images, questioning the relationship between photography, memory, and narrative. The serial repetition further emphasises the role of the observer, who is invited to confront their own interpretative automatisms and the need to assign meaning to what they see.
Finally, the series opens itself to a participatory dimension: visitors are invited to propose new captions, contributing to an expanding plurality of perspectives and possible readings. This collective gesture transforms the work into an open archive of interpretations, reinforcing an ethical reflection on anonymous photography and on the responsibility implicit in every act of observation, description, and appropriation.
Jean-Marie Donat
Jean-Marie Donat, born in 1962 in Paris (France), is an “iconophagous” artist, photography collector, and publisher.
Built over more than thirty years, his collection brings together around forty thousand photographs, ektachromes, and negatives from all over the world, covering more than a century of photographic history (1880-1990). Since the eighties, Donat has been developing this photographic corpus with the aim of offering a singular reading of the twentieth century.
In 2023, he co-founded the Vernacular Social Club, an international association bringing together enthusiasts, collectors, and professionals around vernacular photography.
