Sophie Calle: Because

This work is part of Calle’s ongoing exploration of the relationship between narrative, memory, and photography, and mixes humor and melancholy with her particular eye for irony. In each piece, a felt curtain embroidered with Calle’s writing conceals a hidden photograph behind it. In presenting viewers with the text before the picture, Calle upends the usual order in which images are read.

A wooden box with a red felt curtain with white embroidered text, describing the experience of being at the North Pole
A wooden box with a red felt curtain with white embroidered text, describing the experience of being at the North Pole, the Curtain lifted at the corner by a hand
A framed photograph of a body of water, reflecting a dark blue sky, with small land masses on either side.
A wooden box with a purple curtain, embroidered with white text "David is dead. Because I have no words to describe his world."
A wooden box with a purple curtain, embroidered with white text, the curtain lifted by a hand
A framed photograph of a child's toy against brightly colored, flowered fabric, in a wooden box.
A wooden box with a black curtain, embroidered with white text, describing a photograph of a woman
A wooden box with a photograph inside of a woman
A wooden box with a red curtain, embroidered with white text describing the bullfighter Jose Tomas
A framed photograph of a man in a suit, the bullfighter Jose Tomas, inside a wooden box
A wooden box with a blue curtian, embroidered with white text, describing the artist's stepfather
A wooden box with a photograph from a black and white movie inside
A wooden box, with a purple curtain embroidered with white text, "Because 'Why her?'"
A framed photograph of a graveyard, with an apron around one stone, inside a wooden box
A wooden box with a black curtain, embroidered with white text, describing the artist
A framed photograph of the artist holding a child to her breast, inside a wooden box
A wooden box, with a black curtain, embroidered with white text, describing a bed
A framed photograph of a concrete bed, inside a wooden box

Related Portfolios

Black and white photograph of mustachioed man at ATM machine

Sophie Calle: Cash Machine
Color image of a paperback book, framed in a white box with a yellow banner of text across the glass of the frame

Sophie Calle: Série Noire
A framed photograph of the photographer's reflection in the surface of a headstone

Sophie Calle: Autobiographies