Jérôme Schlomoff

Jérôme Schlomoff has been creating portraits of artists since 1984. This book presents his 100 most iconic portraits. Set against a white background, the photography confronts the brutal frontality of the subject. It is a gaze that calls upon another, establishing an exchange—a shared progression beyond the visible, into the buried memory of appearances. In this way, the portrait anchors itself in the deepest depths of the soul to fathom the subconscious resource that stirs the senses. It is an attempt to approach an unattainable truth.

Each portrait is accompanied by a brief text by Didier Arnaudet that is both incisive and uncertain, like the flash of an anecdote, a memory, or a quote—whether reported, deflected, or dreamed. It embeds itself into the portrait like a splinter, a caption searching for its destination.