Sophie Ristelhueber
1949, Paris, France
Sophie Ristelhueber (Paris, 1949) is a French plastician photographer. Her work revolves around a reflection on territory and its history, through a unique approach to ruins and traces left by humans in places devastated by war or natural and cultural upheavals. Far from conventional photojournalism, Sophie Ristelhueber focuses on exposing facts and the imprint of history, in bodies and landscapes, making wounds and scars visible, as true memories of history. While she primarily uses photography in her work, the photographer uses her images to create full-fledged plastic works, playing with the material and format of the image, its status, its frame, and its installation in space.
Her work has been presented in numerous international institutions, including the MoMA (New York, US), the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, US), the Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Buffalo, US), The Power Plant (Toronto, CA), the Tate Modern (London, GB), the Imperial War Museum (London, GB), the biennials of Johannesburg, Sao Paulo, the Etchigo-Tsumari Triennale, the Rencontres Photographiques d’Arles, and in Paris at the Centre Georges Pompidou/Musée national d’art moderne, the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, the Musée Zadkine, Musée Rodin, and more.
