Around a Family Photo Album

In the early 20th century, the introduction of the first inexpensive automatic cameras led to an exponential increase in photography. Now accessible to a wider audience, the camera found its way into homes and established itself as a family staple. 

For the past decade or so, Nadine and Paul Catry, originally from Lille, have continued to explore this domestic practice of photography. Their “collection of gazes” brings together anonymous prints of various subjects and periods, revealing a nearly universal appropriation of the medium to bear witness to our relationship with the world. 

The exhibition features a collection of more than 370 photographs of a young Belgian girl that Nadine Catry was able to piece together. While our primary motivation was to restore an identity to this anonymous figure, this collection also offers an opportunity to revisit the shared practice of photography, drawing on studies of vernacular photography. In particular, this collection bears witness to the rituals and codes of family photography, as revealed by the sociological study led by Pierre Bourdieu, An average art form. An Essay on the Social Uses of Photography , published in 1965. 

The decision to present all available photographs and information, as well as our research process, is part of a participatory approach. The exhibition reconstructs a chronological timeline of this young woman’s life, from her birth in 1926 until she was 27, complete with transcriptions of the annotations found on the backs of the photographs. Some images have been selected, grouped together, and supplemented with other, more recent prints from the collection to highlight the unique aspects of this personal story and to contextualize this individual practice within the history of amateur instant photography. 

↘︎ Curating: Anne Lacoste with Marion Ambrozy

↘︎ In collaboration with: Nadine and Paul Catry

↘︎ Production: Institut pour la photographie