Emmanuelle Bousquet

After graduating from the École supérieure de journalisme in Paris, Emmanuelle Bousquet spent a year at UCLA in Los Angeles and then at Speos in Paris. Initially, she photographed those closest to her—her mother and sister. Later, she found it more fitting to use her own body as the subject of her photographs, akin to a painter using their canvas. Through self-portraiture, she stepped through the looking glass.

Intrigued by the challenge of introspection, Bousquet emerged as an explorer of femininity. This approach birthed more aesthetic and symbolic concepts, along with a mise-en-scène that became her distinctive signature. Her work embodies both an aesthetic and existential quest.

Bousquet’s series Les Sens Obscurs (The Obscure Senses) is featured at the photo edition of Private Choice in November 2024. Models with translucent skin move elegantly on a historically classified staircase, evoking both convent and brothel. Adorned with period wigs, these women materialize as ghosts of the Grand Siècle. Their languid, idle poses evoke vanished spirits haunting the space.