Photographer Lorraine Alexandre contributes this photo essay drawn from her project Fragments. The work is derived from the performance show Le Goujon folichon created by Julien Fanthou and Gérald Elliott. Presented as black and white silver gelatin photographs arranged in 21 polyptychs, the series reinterprets a performance rooted in a cabaret connected to a historic brothel on the Seine.
Alexandre describes the work as part of her ongoing “photographic epiphanies,” where encounters with performing artists lead to derivative creations. The series presents an ambivalent universe shaped by songs addressing gender relations and their complexities. Her practice has long examined identity staging across masculine and feminine representations. After an early focus on women’s media imagery since the late 19th century, she expanded her study to masculinity. This project brings both figures into dialogue through two male performers embodying different masculine archetypes, one gradually transforming into a cabaret woman.
The work also highlights the physical relationship between bodies and musical instruments, showing how bodies adapt, intersect, and reshape around them. Alexandre states that this encounter between bodies and objects is central to her artistic approach.