Temporary exhibition: "Visual Narratives": In the Army Now — military women, heirs to Lara Croft - 3 October 2026
Updated on 3 October 2026
What a pleasure to open this new monthly chapter with you, and with a new year too! Happy New Year to you all! As is becoming the tradition of this blog, we begin this cycle with the Visual Narratives. It is an introduction designed to be accessible to everyone, an artistic parenthesis where I set explicit nudity aside to concentrate on atmosphere, set and pure emotion. Make yourself comfortable, the journey starts here.
In the army now - military women heirs to Lara Croft |
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The Stuff of Dreams - When costume sculpts time and reinvents the studio space: some very beautiful clothes
This week, In the Army Now joins the Visual Narratives room. I gather here portraits of military women from several series made over the course of my work. All of them revolve around a figure who has been with me for a long time: the warrior woman, modern version.
It all starts with video games. As a teenager, I co-created one of them, Mandragore, published by Infogrames. Our game won first prize: I visited the offices of the magazine Tilt and shook hands with the Minister of Culture. This world of heroes and adventures cradled my adolescence. The title of the exhibition also comes from that time: In the Army Now, the Status Quo hit, in 1986.
Later, Lara Croft arrived. A heroine who fought and led her own story alone. With her, and with a few film heroines, the warrior woman settled for good in my imagination.
In the studio, this theme has come back several times, year after year. For this exhibition, I gathered these sessions, and the series answer one another like members of the same unit.
The outfits take up the vocabulary of the uniform: khaki canvas, metal buckles, straps, starred braid. Often they take the form of a corset that cinches the waist and shapes the silhouette.
Each image tells a scene. A warrior with wet hair stands in orange smoke, one hand in her hair, the other on her hip. Another, her arms tattooed, kneels on the ground while everything explodes behind her, a car with its headlights on in the middle of the flames. A third stares into the lens, her lips red, a red armband tied around her arm.
The exhibition mixes studio portraits on painted backdrops with images where retouching plants a war setting. In some, the light comes from behind: in backlight, the smoke lights up and detaches the silhouette from the background. For others, I built the battlefield in retouching, with explosions and flying embers. The setting becomes cinema, and the model takes the lead role.
The sensuality is embraced. A corset open at the neckline, a thigh strapped with a holster: strength and desire sit in the same image. What I was looking for: power. The moment when the model inhabits her role, when the gaze fixes and the body takes its full place in the frame. They are waiting for you in the Visual Narratives room. The 7-day ticket opens In the Army Now and the three other current exhibitions.
To see this week’s exhibitions or all of my work, here are the options:
 The temporary exhibitions |  The Reserve the Patrons’ Circle | |
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I hope this first stop appealed to you. We are only just beginning. Next week, the mood will change radically. I look forward to meeting you to discover the Free Women series, where we will explore a much more graphic, bold and uninhibited aesthetic. Until then, take care!
Yohann
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