beaux livres : photo, architecture, art

Politique de la représentation brings together and sheds new light on the projects jointly undertaken over the past twenty-five years by photographer Philippe Bazin and philosopher Christiane Vollaire. This working partnership, combining critical documentary photography with field philosophy, is unique in France and spans the first quarter of the twenty-first century.
The book does not seek to provide a catalogue of the various projects, but rather to show how they are connected by shared concerns relating to the realities of the contemporary world: the aesthetic question in its relationship to politics—the making of a common world—which today is shaped by processes of globalization.
The book is divided into five chapters:

1. Habiter : questions the right claimed by all to have a say in the shaping of territory, through the voices of those proposing alternatives to industrial or urban-planning decisions.

2. Migrations : highlights the destructive effects of migration policies and the ways in which people confront and resist them.

3. Résistances et protestations : explores the strength of the paradoxical forms of solidarity that emerge during protest movements and uprisings.

4. Solidarités : shows how initiatives of counter-conduct come together in response to the threats facing social policies.

5. Histoire : examines the ways in which current events are rooted in the history of struggles for rights.


Above all, the book seeks to give photography its rightful place, in relation both to the voices of those directly concerned and to the philosophical reflection that emerges from these encounters, opening up perspectives on the realities and possibilities of the contemporary world. The philosopher’s texts—and the words of the people she has spoken with—thus give the images their true resonance, never serving merely as illustration.

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