If I were

as part of its exhibition program In Search Of in 2020, the Institut pour la photographie, in partnership with WIPPLAY, launched its first collection of photographic images, open to everyone. Invited to create and compose their self-portraits in a different way, participants submitted their personal photographs and then freely took part in curating the exhibition. 

This exhibition—featuring nearly 2,000 images—thus sparked both individual and collective reflection on the exponential growth in the use and sharing of images on the Internet, and on the essential role of interpreting photographic images in a way that is both critical and sensitive.

Through a collaboration with Labo des Histoires, these photographs were gradually accompanied by texts—whether collected online, written spontaneously in the exhibition space, or created during writing workshops. From images of others to self-expression, these encounters between images and words have opened up new ways of interpreting the work—like so many possible horizons for the imagination.

As a sort of scrapbook, a publication presented a selection of these items, representative of the diversity of the photographs and writings that this project brought together.