Companion, research subject, symbol, mirror, or fantasy, animals have never left the photographers’ frame since the invention of the medium. Animal Model takes us on a voyage through two centuries of images that reveal how photography has shaped our view of animals and profoundly influenced the ways we love, exploit, or defend them. Bringing together works by renowned artists as well as anonymous photographs, the exhibition leads us on a thematic journey built around seven perspectives: the anatomical gaze that observes and analyses; the performative gaze, capturing our fascination with animals; the emotional gaze, centered on our domestic companions; the fascinated gaze, celebrating the beauty of the animal world; the ethical gaze, exposing animal exploitation; the aesthetic gaze, where visual, formal, and experimental explorations inspired by animals unfold; and finally the viral gaze that subverts and spreads, blurring the lines between reality and fiction.

From Auguste Bertsch’s 19th-century microphotographs to Elliott Erwitt and Martin Parr’s images revealing human-animal complicity, from Peter Beard’s collages blending personal narrative and ecological concerns to Rinko Kawauchi’s delicate observations, from Simona Kossak’s pursuit of harmony to William Wegman’s playful compositions, the exhibition showcases the work of major photographers who have shaped our sensitivity to living beings. It also embraces the most inventive contemporary approaches, from the strange creatures of Augustin Rebetez and Robin Lopvet to the poetic visions of Vasantha Yogananthan, as well as the viral images and daring experimentations circulating on social media. Finally, it highlights the overwhelming presence of animals in the collective imagination. Together, these representations form a visual panorama of exceptional diversity, inviting us to rethink the boundaries between human and animal, gaze and image, as well as reality and its representation.

Nathalie Herschdorfer