The upcoming session of the series spotlights French photographer Sophie Calle as the featured artist. PhotoSoul: the greatest photographers in the history of photography will take place on Wednesday, May 24 at 20:15 in the Miguel Hernández room at the UA Alicante Town University Venue.
Continuing the loop’s tradition, the program will cover the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Chema Madoz, and Nan Goldin. The session will be led by photographer and writer Pepe Calvo, a prolific figure with a long career in exhibition and publishing since 1975. Calvo has organized or contributed to numerous shows in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, and other Spanish cities, establishing himself as a key voice in contemporary photography.
Selected works by Calle have entered major museum collections and institutions, underscoring her influence on the field. Collections include IVAM, the Charleroi Museum of Photography in Belgium, the Museum of Photography in Donostia, the Jenkins-Romero Collection in New York, the ROTTEN collection in Alicante, the University of Colorado in the United States, and the Gravina Museum of Fine Arts, among others.
Dalí and Gala viewed through the lens of Sophie Calle is highlighted in the presentation titled Sophie Street. The event will feature a curated sequence of Calle’s most significant photographs, accompanied by a discussion with the participants, offering insights into her approach and themes.
The discussion will explore Calle’s distinctive method and her relationship to documentary truth, memory, and narrative construction. The event will examine how Calle selects moments, choreographs scenes, and situates personal experience within wider social contexts, inviting attendees to reflect on the boundaries between fiction and reality in photographic practice.
In this body of work, Calle often scrutinizes the gaze of others and the gaze she casts upon herself. Her investigations into perception and identity reveal a persistent interest in how visibility shapes understanding, a theme that resonates across several of her projects, including ongoing explorations of how audiences interpret what they observe and how personal experience informs public expression.
The exploration of perspective and reception in Calle’s practice continues to influence contemporary photography discourse, inviting comparisons with other major figures who interrogate the act of looking, the construction of truth, and the ethics of representation. The session is designed to illuminate how Calle’s work challenges conventional portraiture and documentary photography, while also situating her within a broader canon of authorship and visual storytelling.
American author Paul Auster’s influence on Calle’s fictionalized and narrative sensibilities is noted in literary discussions of her work, including connections drawn to the novel Leviathan. These cross-media references help illuminate how Calle weaves narrative and perception, expanding the viewer’s understanding of photographic storytelling.