Are we ever free? Some female characters raise this problem. Subordinated to a male world, victims of their condition or their time but also plagued by their own torments, numerous of them are unable to influence the course of their existence while other ones are trying to do this. The most courageous ones who despise the eventual disastrous consequences. Anne Kuhn examines abused heroines who went wrong, these forgotten geniuses.

In two juxtaposed photographs, she pictures Emma Bovary, Lolita or Thérèse Desqueyroux between fiction and allegory, placing their story into a more contemporary context. First, they are shown as she imagined them when reading the novel, and then their destiny is modified in order to raise questions about women’s freedom and, simultaneously, about her own one.

At the same time, as a title for the two created photographs, a question is asked about one of the universal subjects like wait, revolt, conveniences or recognition. Ultimately, we deal with an interdependent set composed of a diptych, a question, an answer from the part of the models – of different ages and backgrounds – and a thoroughly selected literary extract.

 »Once again, Anne Kuhn blurs the tracks. With talent, like an intimate painter, she makes the characters come out of the context. She knows the importance of chiaroscuro. Under her gaze, nobody is the one we think. In another possible world Emma would laugh, Rosalie would sing, Célestine would scream. Finally free? We’ll see. » Michèle Fitoussi