Sophie Calle

Sophie Calle, is the photographer which I am currently investigating and I am particularly interested in her The Hotel, Room 44 collection. In terms of context, I have discovered that Calle managed to secure a job as a chambermaid in a hotel which lasted three weeks (meaning Calle had three weeks to produce the photographs for this project - a similar time period to that given to me for the Territories project). In 1983, Calle worked in a Venetian hotel, with the primary purpose of photographing the contents of visitor’s hotel rooms. She took notes on her subjects, who were staying on the fourth floor of the hotel. According to Ian Jeffrey, Calle had intended the images to be exhibited as a group. Susan Bright said Calle ‘investigated the role of the photographic document and how it functions as something public and also artistic. The crossover between what is public and what is private and the blurring of boundaries between them are constant themes of her work, which takes an autobiographic approach’. 

In terms of subject matter, I am particularly interested in the way in which Calle has photographed and positioned a range of personal belongings next to each other, in order to create a narrative sequence. Subject matter ranges from drying washing, to disordered beds and luggage. Something which is fascinating about this series of work, is that the objects captured are extremely personal and private, (indicated through the way in which Calle had to acquire a maid’s job in order to gain unrestricted access to the belongings), however, there is a distinct lack of personality and real identity, due to the lack of human presence within the frames. In this sense, although the objects act as visual signifiers of the owner’s personality, this can only be interpreted or guessed by the audience.