Interview: Anne Wachsmann Guigon

What led you to collect photography?

“It was the photobook that first led me to collecting photography. In that sense, I very much belong to the Martin Parr generation, shaped by his work on the history of photobooks from 2005 onwards.

Photobooks have been a key vehicle for the dissemination of photographers’ work, particularly during the rise of avant-garde journals and photojournalism in the interwar years.

My husband then introduced me to a world in which art and culture became an essential part of our lives. It allows us to exchange perspectives and to nourish one another through our emotions, influences and reflections.Visiting museums, biennials and festivals, with Arles as an essential stop, plays a key role in shaping our photographic choices. Fairs, whether specialized like Paris Photo or more general, along with galleries, are equally important.”

Andres Serrano, Chuckling Charlie (The Robots), 2022 — Courtesy of Galerie Nathalie Obadia & Collection of Anne Wachsmann Guigon

Helmar Lersky, Métamorphoses par la lumière, 1936 — Courtesy of Kicken Gallery & Collection of Anne Wachsmann Guigon

What type of photography do you collect and are there recurring themes in your collection?

“As a lawyer, art allows me to step into a less regulated world, one that escapes rules. The collection reflects this, bringing together photographers whose work interests me. These include Bernard Plossu, a long-time friend, particularly his work on his Mexican journey, as well as Atget, Helmar Lersky, Sudek, Eugene Smith, Winogrand, Mary Ellen Mark, Bruce Davidson, Weegee and Nicolas Nixon and his Brown Sisters series.

In many ways, it is this diversity that gives the collection its strength. The political dimension is, of course, present, spanning a wide range of themes and periods. I am thinking in particular of our prints by Andres Serrano, Capa, Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, Zanele Muholi, Nan Goldin, Taryn Simon, Diane Arbus, Colita and Ouka Leele. Feminist engagement is also an important aspect.

There is no specific geographical focus either. I am drawn to the great American color photographers such as Meyerowitz and Shore, to European Surrealist photography including Man Ray, Berenice Abbott, Styrsky, Heisler, Ubac and Brassaï, as well as to South American photography, for example H. Coppola, and to contemporary Japanese photography such as Moriyama and Fukase.

For more personal reasons, I do not like photographs of female nudes and we do not wish to live surrounded by images of war or by photographs predating the First World War. Although I find them sublime, they require a very specific kind of knowledge. The oldest photograph in our collection, dating from 1915, is a portrait of children in a factory by Lewis Hine, who is well known for his fight against child labor, or rather child slavery, in the United States.”

Bruce Davidson, The Dwarf with Cigarettes and Flowers, 1958 — Courtesy of Magnum Photo, Howard Greenberg Gallery & Collection of Anne Wachsmann Guigon

Nicolas Nixon, The Brown Sisters, Marblehead, Massachusetts, 1979 — Courtesy of Galerie Eric Dupont, Fraenkel Gallery & Collection of Anne Wachsmann Guigon

Could you tell us about a particular work in your collection?

“One photograph that is especially dear to me, among many difficult choices, is The Butterfly Woman, a self-portrait by Claude Cahun.

It is both the rarity and the extraordinary fragility of this depiction of a woman artist who defied her time through her Jewish identity, her relationships and her work. It embodies every form of transgression and continues to fascinate entire generations of artists.”