Encounter with ORLAN

In 1964, ORLAN is a 17-year-old girl who invents herself by photographing herself on her trousseau sheet. The latter had been wisely elaborated by her mother, a seamstress in her spare time and the wife of an anarchist, Esperantist and naturist husband who worked in electricity. In her manifesto ORLAN accouche d'elle-m'aime, in which she appears opposite her alter ego, a model, she strikes the pose of a bored teenager on a café terrace. Her pouty mouth is enhanced by a bright lipstick, her smoky eyes stare off into a promising horizon far from Saint-Etienne. In the meantime, ORLAN tried her hand at poetry, publishing a collection for her 15th birthday and retaining the witz, the spirit, throughout her work. She opened up to theatre, yoga, sculpture and painting. Visual courtesy of the Ceysson & Bénétière gallery.