Sophie Calle - Definition and Overview

Sophie Calle is a French photographer, installation and conceptual artist. She was born in 1953.

Much of Sophie Calle’s work is inspired by the use of arbitrary sets of constraints, much like the French literary movement from the 1960s called Oulipo. She is also well known for her voyeuristic and sleuth-like tendencies while following strangers and investigating people’s private lives, but she has also allowed herself to be put on show. Much of her photographic work also includes text panels of her own writing.

The artist started in the 1970s after traveling the world for several years. Her first simple photographs were of graves marked ‘’mother’’ and ‘’father’’.

Some of her notable works include:

• In “Suite Venitienne” (1979) Sophie Calle followed a handsome man she met at a party in Paris to Venice, where she disguised herself and followed him around photographing him. The series includes photos and her text of the pursuit.

• In “Address Book” (1983) the French daily newspaper ‘’Libération’’ invited Sophie Calle to publish a series of 28 articles. Having found a address book on the street (which she photocopied and sent back to the owner), Sophie Calle decided to call up some of the various names in the book and to talk to them about the owner and to this she added photos of the man’s favorite activities, thus creating a portrait of the man through his acquaintances. Unfortunately the actual owner of the address book (a documentary filmmaker named Pierre Baudry) threatened to take the artist to court for invasion of privacy and, as Sophie Calle tells the story, the owner was able to unearth a nude photo of her which he demanded the newspaper publish.

• In “Hotel” (1980s), Sophe Calle became a chambermaid at a hotel in Venice where she was able to explore the objects and writings of the hotel guests.

• Sophie Calle served as the model for the character of Maria in Paul Auster’s novel Leviathan (1992). This mingling of fact and fiction so intrigued Sophie that she took it upon herself to undertake the works of art that Auster ascribed to Maria, including a series of color-coordinated meals.

• Paul Auster was also responsible for imposing on Sophie Calle the ‘’creation and maintenance of a public amenity in New York’’. The artist decided to take a standard phone booth and to enhance it with a note pad, a bottle of water, cigarettes, flowers, cash and other items. Everyday she cleaned up the booth and restock the items.

• Sophe Calle has created elaborate display cases of her birthday presents through the years.

• In “The Sleepers” (2003) she spent the night in bed at the top of the Eiffel Tower and invited 28 people to come to her and read bedtimes stories to keep her awake through the long hours.

In 2003 the artist had her first one-woman show at the French National Museum of Modern Art – Pompidou Center (Beaubourg).

At her gallery shows, Sophie Calle frequently has suggestion forms for people to furnish ideas for her art and she sits beside them looking coolly on.