Sophie Calle’s ”Your turn, baby!” and the ritual of photographic image-creation-act

Abstract

The present paper analyzes the theories of Horst Bredekamp’s image-act and Philippe Dubois’s photo-act in the context of Sophie Calle’s exhibition A toi de faire, ma mignonne (Your turn, baby!), held in Paris at the Picasso Museum from 03.10.2023 to 07.01.2024 and it draws on the shift in image and photo-theory resulting from the ritualisation of photographic image-creation. Sophie Calle’s work develops a unique style through an inextricable mixing of the intimate and the public, reality and fiction, her own life and art. In her oeuvre the act of image-making, while seemingly merely documentary, has in fact an effect on the image-maker, the model and the viewer of the finished image. The arrangement of the images and texts makes the viewer an active shaper of reception. The everyday situations are elevated into rituals authenticated by the act of making a proof (photograph or video).