The Jeu de Paume in Paris is hosting a major retrospective of French photographer Madeleine de Sinéty, whose vast archive of over 56,000 slides and negatives was largely unknown until recently. The exhibition, which originated at the Centre d’art GwinZegal in Brittany and traveled from the Château de Tours, presents a chronological survey of her work spanning urban gentrification, rural life, and disappearing trades, much of it shot in color during an era dominated by black-and-white photography.
This exhibition matters because it rescues a prolific and remarkably focused artist from obscurity, highlighting how institutional persistence—by curators Jérôme Sother and Quentin Bajac—can uncover significant bodies of work that artists themselves never had time to organize. De Sinéty’s intimate, immersive approach to documenting communities on the brink of change offers a vital counterpoint to dominant photographic narratives, and her rediscovery expands the canon of 20th-century French photography.