Portraits d’intérieurs

Théâtre du Nord has invited the Institut pour la Photographie to use its common areas to showcase exhibitions while it is closed for renovation. Following the presentation of six preliminary exhibition programmes at its premises in Vieux-Lille, the Institut pour la Photographie is now continuing all its activities off-site until its reopening, scheduled for the second half of 2026.

Between 1989 and 2008, Jean-Louis Schoellkopf, whose photographic archives are preserved by the Institute for Photography, started to study the residents of cities undergoing great changes in France (Saint-Étienne, Liévin, Strasbourg, Melle, and Hayange) and overseas (Germany, Portugal, Belgium, and Palestine). Following a straightforward and consistent photographic protocol, he captured them in their interiors, highlighting the uniqueness of people’s ways of life within common living spaces, shaped by their social backgrounds and professional and cultural identities. These portraits of interiors spanning more than 20 years reveal the hidden sides of architecture and the surrounding environment. Much like an anthropologist, Jean-Louis Schoellkopf documents ways of living and engaging with space, drawing our attention to the personal stories they conjure up.

In 2021, the French photographer Jean-Louis Schoellkopf donated his entire collection of negatives, Ektachromes, and contact sheets (over 11,000 phototypes, representing about 30,000 images) to the photographic archives of the Institut pour la Photographie. This collection joins the existing archives that include the negatives, contact sheets, and prints of Agnès Varda, as well as the complete photographic archives of Bettina Rheims, totalling over 300,000 phototypes.

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Practical information

Théâtre du Nord
4 place du Général de Gaulle, Lille
theatredunord.fr

↘︎ Tuesday-Friday: 12.30 pm → 7 pm,
Saturday: 2 pm → 7 pm,
Closed on Sundays and public holidays

↘︎ Exhibition accessible by people with impaired mobility

↘︎ Free entrance

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Curator
Jean-Louis Schoellkopf and Carole Sandrin, Curator of the photographic collection at the Institut pour la Photographie,
Assisted by Rose Durr and Margot Carette

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In partnership with Théâtre du Nord