Sophie Calle

Sophie Calle – Voyeurism as a means of art

Sophie Calle was born in Paris on 9 October 1953. The daughter of an art dealer and a surgeon, following her parents’ separation she grew up from the age of two with her mother. For a long time, she was searching for something, working as a barmaid and striptease dancer, and for seven she travelled the world, the USA, Mexico and Lebanon. Sophie Calle eventually arrived at photography in 1978 when she took her first pictures in California. The camera would become an indispensable component of her first art events: In order to settle back into Paris after her long absence, she sought out particular ‘city guides’ to take her by the hand unnoticed through the now foreign surroundings. Calle dressed up in a wig and raincoat, followed unknown people through the city and took numerous photographs and notes along the way. She later compiled the pictures and remarks into an art project, the voyeuristic aspect of which became programmatic for her future work. 

A scandal brought world fame

Sophie Calle became famous overnight – with a scandal caused by her controversial work The Address Book. The impetus for the project was the chance discovery of an eponymous address book which had been lost by a stranger. Sophie Calle called the contacts listed in it and questioned them at length about the owner of the book. The result was a collage of intimate details that created a precise portrait of the love affairs, idiosyncrasies, professional life and personality of the man the artist introduces to her audience as ‘Pierre D.’. The man was outraged and retaliated with the publication of nude photos of Sophie Calle from her time as a stripper. After a heated dispute, it was agreed that the work would be kept under lock and key until ‘Pierre D.’ died. The American writer Paul Auster was inspired by this scandal, and some critics also accused the artist of deliberate staging as they claim many of the statements about the sitter come across as too literary. 

The private becomes a public work of art

For her art, Sophie Calle often helps herself to the lives of other people: For her project Hotel, she worked as a chambermaid in a hotel and spied on guests. But she also does not spare herself: She had herself shadowed by a private detective whom she also had followed by a secret tracker. Calle processed the results of this double-shadowing in her presentation The Shadow. For her event Room with a View, she spent a night on the Eiffel Tower and had strangers read bedtime stories to her. When she was asked to contribute to the French pavilion of the Venice Biennale in 2007, she chose a private email in which her ex-boyfriend had ended their relationship and had it interpreted by 107 women from various educational backgrounds in order to overcome her own speechlessness in the face of the breakup. She sees herself as neither photographer nor writer, but instead as an artist in the broadest sense. As she is never satisfied with her pictures, she sometimes hires professional photographers to work to her specifications. 

Sophie Calle lives and works in Malakoff near Paris and in New York.