Portraits of Interiors

The Théâtre du Nord has invited the Institut pour la photographie to take over its communal spaces and present exhibitions there for the duration of its closure for renovations. After presenting six preview exhibition programs at its Vieux-Lille location, the Institut pour la photographie is now continuing all of its off-site activities until its reopening, scheduled for the second half of 2026. 

Throughout his projects carried out between 1989 and 2008, Jean-Louis Schoellkopf—whose photographic archives are held by the Institut pour la photographie—paid particular attention to the residents of cities undergoing change in France (Saint-Étienne, Liévin, Strasbourg, Melle, Hayange…), as well as abroad (in Germany, Portugal, Belgium, and Palestine). Following a simple and consistently identical shooting protocol, he photographed them in their homes, revealing the uniqueness of their lifestyles within common contexts—such as housing types, social affiliations, and professional and cultural identities. 

Spanning nearly 20 years, these interior portraits reveal the other side of architecture. Like an anthropologist, Jean-Louis Schoellkopf documents the ways people live and make use of space, drawing our attention to the personal stories these scenes evoke.

In 2021, French photographer Jean-Louis Schoellkopf donated his entire collection of negatives, Ektachromes, and contact sheets (totaling more than 11,000 photographic items, representing approximately 30,000 images) to the photographic archives of the Institut pour la photographie, where they joined Agnès Varda’s negatives, contact sheets, and contact prints by Agnès Varda, as well as the complete photographic archive of Bettina Rheims—totaling more than 300,000 photographic items.

↘︎ Curating: Jean-Louis Schoellkopf and Carole Sandrin, Curator of Photographic Collections at the Institut pour la photographie / Assisted by Rose Durr and Margot Carette

↘︎ Acknowledgments and mentions: In partnership with the Théâtre du Nord