Interview with Photographer Lucie Pastureau

Presented at the Théâtre du Nord from February 13 to July 4, 2026, the exhibition Elastic Bodies by photographer Lucie Pastureau invites viewers to discover a collective narrative of intimate and empowering experiences related to the body.
A look back at the project and its origins with the artist.

How the project Elastic Bodies did it emerge?

Lucie Pastureau: This project came at a specific turning point and a time of growth in my career. During my exhibition She'll be caressed at the Museum of Photography in Charleroi in early 2025—which served as a sort of retrospective of my work over the past decade—everything that has interested me since I began emerged: fragility and strength, the narrative potential of photography, what it invites us to read into it, and the stories it tells. I then felt compelled to delve deeper into my exploration of the body and its representations, its experiences, and its struggles.

In 2021, I also collaborated with the contemporary dance and puppet theater company “Les Nouveaux Ballets” on a walk-through performance in public spaces, inspired by Diane Arbus, which featured photography as the true protagonist of the show 20th Street West . This work on bringing photography to life—on the body that defies the norm and the expectations placed upon it—also inspired me for this project.

Drawing on my own experiences with pregnancy and parenthood, I set out to explore how others cope with their physicality and the intimate stories associated with it—and, by extension, with their way of being in the world and with others.
The body, like a photograph, is the image we present to the world—and that presents itself to the world. But beneath it all—beneath the skin, beneath the physicality of the image—what lies hidden?
With Elastic Bodies , my aim is not to explain or document, but to bring out—through a very physical relationship with the image—sensations, a back-and-forth movement, and a kind of fluidity and elasticity in the image, the bodies, and the stories. As if photography itself, despite its fixed nature, could evoke shifting sensations.

Did the intimacy with the models—which is evident in the photographs—exist beforehand, or did it develop over time as part of the project?

Lucie Pastureau: This project just came to me, and I had to figure out how to express it in words and images. I naturally turned to people close to me, or people I’d met on other projects; then, little by little, as if by osmosis, the whole thing took on a life of its own.
And I'm not done yet! More images will be added to it.

every time, it’s a genuine encounter. Sometimes I’ve exchanged words with certain people, without any photos; with others, there was no need for many words, and the photos were taken in silence.
I follow my instincts, with the wind in my hair; I turn right, then left, guided by what I read and the people I meet; one book leads me to another, one person to another.

I would say that the very act of taking a photograph puts me in a state of heightened awareness and closeness—even if these feelings are sometimes only fleeting—with people I don’t know beforehand, for example. This leads me to a kind of focus, an extreme attention to the person standing in front of my lens. A sense of intimacy—even if only fleeting—always develops. This project requires that a kind of pact of trust and letting go be forged.

Since this project is a form of self-expression, it was important to me that the people photographed not be viewed as models, but rather as people whom I first met and then photographed: in fact, several of them have been invited to interact with the exhibition during its run at the Théâtre du Nord. This shifts them to the other side of the image.

Why did you combine poetry with photography?

Lucie Pastureau: It became clear to me very quickly. I’ve been working with text for a long time, and it began, of its own accord, to take up more and more space. I let the images and words—which were jostling for position and echoing one another—come to me.

The interplay between text and photography—two parallel languages that do not evoke the same associations—constitutes a third medium. The text and photographs do not merely illustrate one another, but rather accompany, reference, complement, and connect with one another.  In a constant back-and-forth, photography becomes a language, and the text—sometimes metaphorical—becomes an image.

Once again, the goal is to preserve the ambiguity, the obscurity, the complexity, and the layers of meaning and possibilities inherent in things, rather than to simplify them. This is to counter an increasingly normalized, binary, and standardized way of thinking.

Elastic Bodies explores various artistic and photographic styles. What does this diversity bring to the project?

Lucie Pastureau: This project is ever-changing; it involves embracing both what comes to the surface and what remains veiled, and observing distortions of reality when the veil is torn away. Photography is like a magical thought that captures the supernatural and the invisible. And it is precisely with this intention that I manipulate the images to twist and distort them.

In this exhibition, I’ve tried—through the various formats, the way the works are hung, and the rhythm of the words and images—to bring these sensations and emotions to the surface.
Together with the production team at the Institut pour la photographie, we conceived the exhibition layout as a musical score that echoes the text and the music played through the sound showers, composed by Léonie Young and Olivier Desmulliez.
I think of and experience color as something vibrant and musical; it’s all about rhythm and intensity. Ultimately, images—given their different natures—are like notes on a staff, playing together, harmonizing, or clashing. I like to think of them as fluid and alive, intermingling and influencing one another, just like our stories.