Co-editors
Alice Aigrain (Université de Strasbourg)
Camille Joseph (Université Paris 8)
Anaïs Mauuarin (EHESS)

Call for papers
In her book Mon vrai nom est Elisabeth, Adèle Yon investigates and documents the life of her
great-grand-mother, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia in the 1950s. She soon wonders
about the availability of photographic archives made and preserved either by the asylum or by the
nursing staff. “I ask Roseline if she still has photographs from that time…’I had boxes full of
them,’ she says, ‘but I threw it all away one month ago. I haven’t kept anything. You should have
told me before… I had lots of pictures.’”

The next issue of Photographica aims precisely at documenting these photographs—the ones that
were kept, discarded, published, or even sold. How was photography produced, used and
circulated in institutions cut off from the rest of the world, those enclosed spaces where people
live reclusive and strictly regulated lives (psychiatric wards, boarding schools, convents,
monasteries, military barracks, prison camps, sanatoriums, leper colonies, shelters, retirement
homes,…)? While photographs have often been studied through the lens of their controlling or
disciplinary function (Sekula, Tagg), they have more rarely been addressed as circulating
objects or as means of negotiation and contestation. In this issue, we seek to explore the diversity
of the functions of photography in institutional contexts—whether initiated by the institution
itself or by the people living or working within it—in order to understand the complex social
relations and representations that have existed in closed institutions from the beginnings of
photography to the 1980s.
Our theoretical ground is rooted in Erwin Goffman’s concept of total institutions and the
debates that followed in the 1960s, particularly in the work of Michel Foucault and, more
recently, Corinne Rostaing.
In this issue, we would like to question the ways in which photographs corroborate these definitions or, on the contrary, reveal their instability and test their validity by exposing their limits. In “closed” spaces, can photography—as a practice—and photographs—as objects—circulate beyond the walls? If so, are such circulations controlled and managed by the institutions, or do they reflect strategies and motivations that attest to the porosity of these spaces—porosity that the institutions have an interest in maintaining? We want to examine how some photographs participate in the excluding and disciplinary functions intrinsic to total institutions, as well as how others seem able to exist at their margins.

Possible topics for contributions
Based on case studies of photographs made and produced within these institutions, we welcome
articles focusing on the following main topics. The list is not exhaustive, and contributions that
address several of them are encouraged.

Topic 1 – Scenes from the Inside: Photography by and for Institutions
A first, perhaps self-evident, practice is photography initiated by institutions themselves, a
long-standing tradition. In the 1870s, for instance, some hospitals—specifically psychiatric
wards—created photographic laboratories to document patients, medical activities, the evolution
of pathologies, etc. This required material, financial, and human resources; hospitals recruited
operators, sought funding, set up dedicated rooms, defined visual protocols, and so forth. Similar
practices can be found in other closed institutions (prisons, convents, boarding schools,…), with
a more or less centralised production of images. The resulting photographs include portraits of
residents, architectural views, scenes of daily life or specific activities, pictures of staff members,
etc. While some archives have already been explored, a large part of these visual collections
remains to be uncovered.
Our objective is to understand the material and social conditions under which photographs were
produced in these closed spaces. What kinds of pictures are produced when photography is an
institutional initiative? Who are the operators taking the photographs? Who are the clients or
administrators behind this visual strategy? Which equipment is used, and under what conditions?
Do photographs circulate within the institution? Are professional photographers always involved,
or does the institution assign the residents to work in photo labs?
The uses of these photographs is equally diverse. They may be circulated within the institution or
between similar institutions. Their roles may be memorial, scientific, disciplinary, political, or
economic. By analysing the archives, one can better understand the extent how photography
produced by an institution contributed to organising and legitimising the institution’s work and its
self-representation, as well as its internal contradictions.
The institutional regulation of photographic practices has a broader context. We invite
contributions that examine how photography has become legitimate—or not—in enclosed
spaces. Are there legal provisions governing these practices? How have they evolved through
time? We also welcome analyses of the debates that emerged when photography entered these
enclosed spaces, which are by definition cut off from society and outsiders.

Topic 2 – Photographs Produced, Circulated and Distributed Outside the Institution’s
Walls
Photographs taken in institutions are not always produced by the institution, nor for its own use.
Some are destined to circulate beyond its walls, either to promote and defend its public image or,
on the contrary, to conceal certain aspects of life inside. We would like to question the nature of
these “documents” and the diversity of media used to distribute them on the outside: photo
albums, postcards, illustrations, posters,… Which images circulate and to which purpose, for
instance promotional ones?
It would also be interesting to consider the perspective of the residents and examine the role these images play in representing their life experiences to viewers beyond the walls.
External actors may also intervene in institutions to document them as living environments.
Particular may be given to the work of photographers-reporters, photojournalists, and
professional photographers with artistic projects. This raises the question of the relation between
institutions and photographers. Who has access to these closed spaces? What forms of sociability
are required to get in? Under what conditions is access granted? Does the institution control the
pictures taken? How may photographers circumvent institutional restrictions? What relationships
develop between the people photographed and the outside photographer? When reporting is
forbidden, what bypass strategies exist?
In the magazine Détective, for instance, some of the most sensational articles on institutions
(prisons and psychiatric wards) were illustrated with pictures unrelated with the actual content.20
Even if off-topic, photography was used to provide readers with the desired sense of awe through
striking layout, typography and crude photomontage. This example raises the question of what is
used to fill in the void when photography is forbidden. The multiplicity of media through which
images circulate prompts questions about the accompanying discourses: denouncing living
conditions, supporting of the established system, illustrating a news story, portraying an
institutional actor,… Depending on their visual choices and their circulation channels,
photographs may come in support of institutional discourses or, conversely, open a breach in the
walls.

Topic 3 – Beyond the Frame: Photographs Taken by Residents or Staff Members
In her book, Adèle Yon asks Roseline, a retired psychiatric nurse, about the pictures she
eventually threw away: “There were pictures of celebrations organised by the nun, pictures of
carnivals… I had tons of stuff.”
This suggests that the existence of a type of internal photography that escapes the control of the institution and administration. It is produced by amateur photographers, be they members of staff or residents. Are these photographs the result of individual practices, or are they produced under supervision or in more organised forms, such as photo clubs? Do institutions establish rules for the practice of photography? On a technical level, how do people have access to a camera or a photo lab?
In some cases, amateur photography may adopt the rhythm and visual codes of the institutions.
Not only does it document daily life, it may also participate in it with the presence of a
photographer during social rituals (birthdays, celebrations, individual or family portraits,…).
One may ask whether photography helps reproduce social norms present in other environments
and import them into closed institutions while obscuring their disciplinary dimension. Are all
internal photographs disciplinary in nature? One may also consider tacit censorship, as in Soviet internment camps in the mid-20th century, where amateur photographers avoided taking
photographs of material signs of imprisonment situation such as barbed-wire.

However, photography sometimes challenges official visual codes by offering a different view of
life in institutions. Do these pictures, taken by people living or working inside, play with norms
and create porous spaces that circumvent the domination and violence existing in disciplinary
environments? Even when the institution is aware of its existence, can photography challenge the
asymmetrical relationship that reduces residents to (passive) photographic objects? Can
photography allow residents to re-appropriate their living environment and their
self-representation? We welcome contributions examining the specific uses of photography in
total institutions and its visual economy.
Another important aspect to consider is the existence of clandestine photography, which
completely escapes the institutional control. For example, in 1961 at the Baumettes prison in
Marseille, France, an Algerian detainee close to the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) secretly
took photographs of stage plays conveying strong political messages. What solidarity chains made
such act possible? What were the motivations behind such photographic practices? When
discovered, what do these images tell us about the larger role of photography in closed
institutions? While the historian’s work is precisely to unearth these images, we may ask what
other sources and methods can be used to access visual practices that remain concealed in
archival silence.
We also invite contributions examining how photographs taken by people living and working in
institutions are displayed and circulated. Are prints made visible through exhibitions, projections,
albums,…? Do informal or clandestine networks allow images to circulate among the residents?
Is the presence of photographic practices tolerated by the institution?
By shedding light on amateur photography that partly escapes disciplinary institutions, this issue
seeks to examine the extent to which such practices disturb or, on the contrary, confirm the
self-representations produced by these institutions. Finally, it is about the link that photography
may re-establish between institutions and the broader political and social ecosystem in which they
exist.

A note on methodology
Particular attention will be given to contributions addressing the complex meanings of the
photographs chosen as case-studies and the potential issues of violence and domination
associated with some of them. We also invite authors to reflect on their publication choices
(format, captioning,…).

References
Books and articles
● Aigrain Alice, « Jules D., patient, modèle », Photographica, 5, 2022, 22-41.
● Aigrain Alice, Des corps malade sous l’objectif, Paris, Éditions de la Sorbonne, (to be
published).
● Amiotte-Suchet Laurent and Audrey Higelin Cruz (dir.) Ethnographier les institutions
totales, Ethnographiques.org : revue en ligne de sciences humaines et sociales [online], n°46,
2023, URL : https://www.ethnographiques.org/2023/numero-46/
● Artières, Philippe, Attica, USA, 1971, Cherbourg, Le Point du jour, 2017.
● Brookes, Barbara, “Pictures of People, pictures of places: Photography and the
Asylum”, Exhibiting Madness in Museums, London, Routledge, 2011, p.30-47.
● Cialdella, Philippe, “Photographies d’asile”, dans Hervé Guillemain (dir.),
DicoPolHis, Le Mans Université, 2022.
● Deleuze, Gilles, « Post-scriptum sur les sociétés de contrôle », in Pourparlers 1972 –
1990, Les éditions de Minuit, Paris, 1990
● Goffman, Erving, Asylums: Essays on the Condition of the Social Situation of Mental
Patients and Other Inmates, NYC, Anchor Books, 1961.
● Higelin-Fusté, Audrey , « La photographie carcérale : représentation, trahison ou
instrumentalisation de l’architecture pénitentiaire ? », Les Carnets du LARHRA [En
ligne], 2012, URL : https://publications-prairial.fr/larhra/index.php?id=1129
● Honoré, Célia, Photographier les criminelles. Figures de la déviance féminine dans la culture
visuelle de la modernité (France, 1855-1914), Doctoral dissertation, 2024, Université de
Genève.
● Honoré Célia, « Les insurgées de la Commune vues par Ernest Appert »,
Photographica, 5, 2002, 42-65.
● Joschke, Christian, « La photographie au service des psychiatres ». L’Histoire – Les
Collections, 51(2), 2011, p.78-79.
● Luchsinger Katrin et Stefanie Hoch (dir.), Behind Walls. Photography in Psychiatric
Institutions from 1880 to 1935, Zurich, Scheidegger & Spiess – Kunstmuseum
Thurgau, 2022.
● Marchetti Anne-Marie, “Arrêt sur image”, Perpétuités, Paris Plon, 2001.
● Margolis, Eric et Jeremy Rowe, “Images of assimilation: Photographs of Indian
schools in Arizona”, History of Education 33-2, 2004, p. 199-230.
● Pearl, Sharrona, “Through a Mediated Mirror: The Photographic Physiognomy of
Dr Hugh Welch Diamond.” History of Photography 33(3), 2009, p.288–305.
● Renneville, Marc, « Démons et déments. Quand Détective enquête sur la folie »,
Criminocorpus [online], 2018, URL :
http://journals.openedition.org/criminocorpus/5017
● Rostaing Corinne, “Institution totale : ambiguïtés et potentialités d’un concept bien
vivant”, Ethnographiques.org : revue en ligne de sciences humaines et sociales [online], n°46,
2023, URL : https://www.ethnographiques.org/2023/Rostaing
● Sanchez, Jean-Lucien, “Le traitement du bagne colonial de Guyane par le magazine
Détective”, Criminocorpus [online], 2018, URL:
https://journals.openedition.org/criminocorpus/5112
● Sekula Allan, “The Body and the Archive”, October 39, 1986, p. 3-64.
● Sekula, Allan, Ecrits sur la photographie, Paris, Éditions des Beaux-Arts de Paris, 2018.
● Skidmore, Colleen, “Photography in the Convent: Grey Nuns, Québec, 1861”,
Histoire sociale/Social History 35/70, 2002, p.279-310.
● Suenens Kristien and Anne Roekens, « Portraits voilés », Photographica 5, 2022, p.
64-82.
● Tagg, John, The Burden of Representation, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press,
1993.
● Tagg, John, The Disciplinary Frame. Photographic Truths and the Capture of Meaning,
Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 2009.
● Tcherneva, Irina , “For an Exploration of Visual Resources of the History of
Imprisonment ”, The Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies [online] 19,
2018, URL : https://journals.openedition.org/pipss/5003

Exhibition catalogues and conferences
● Face à ce qui se dérobe, les clichés de la folie, Chalon-sur-Saône, Musée Nicéphore
Niepce, 18 Oct. 2025 -19 Jan. 2026.
● “Patient·e·s et personnel soignant. Interroger les rapports de pouvoir en
psychiatrie au XXe siècle à travers les archives audiovisuelles” Colloque organisé
par Mireille Berton et Jessica Schüpbach, Lausanne, 27-28 Mar. 2025, UNIL.
● Aigrain Alice, « Les multiples usages de la photographie par Bourneville à l’hospice
de Bicêtre ». L’enfance aliénée sous l’œil du docteur Bourneville, exhibition catalogue. Paris,
DGDBM – Université Paris Cité, PhotoSaintGermain, 2024, p.73-81.
● “Ethnographies Plurielles – Institutions totales”, conference organised by the
Société d’Ethnologie Française, Aubervilliers, 29-30 Nov. 2021, Campus
Condorcet.
● L’Impossible Photographie : prisons parisiennes, 1851-2010, catalogue d’exposition [Paris,
Musée Carnavalet, 10 Feb.-4 Jul. 2010], Paris, Paris Musées, 2010