22 - CTRL. - New Functions of Images

Jul 6, 2026 – Oct 4, 2026

Anne-Camille Allueva (1984), Mariia Andreeva (1997), Pierre-Olivier Arnaud (1972), François Bellabas (1989), Douglas Coupland (1961), Fig Docher (1997), Dora García (1965), Paul Graham (1956), Information Fiction Publicité (IFP, 1984), Joyce Joumaa (1998), Florence Jung (1986), Prune Phi (1991), Adrian Sauer (1976), Wolfgang Tillmans (1968), Lawrence Weiner (1942–2021) The photograph you are looking at is deceptive. As you look at it, others are likely doing the same on other screens, in other countries, in other forms. It knows you are looking at it. It is analyzed by machines, encoded in an algorithm used for other purposes. Other information is embedded in its pixel structure. It is not alone: it is linked to other images and helps generate new ones; together they alter our perception of reality. Photography has moved beyond its role in representation, now serving only to mask the control it exerts over our gaze. What it represents is now secondary. What should we do with these new images? Ctrl. presents works that look at how images operate, rather than what they show. Like a camera fallen to the ground, this exhibition shows the inside of the device—its machinery, its mechanisms, its data—rather than photographs. It invites us to look behind the scenes, where images are in constant motion. This exhibition is the result of a curatorial research project lead throughout the year by a group of students from the École nationale supérieure de la photographie, under the direction of artist, teacher, and researcher Nicolas Giraud. As part of the Bicentennial of Photography program, this is the first section of a research project that, in 2026, explores the school’s future before turning, in a second section in 2027, to its history.