The work of the Swiss photographer Monique Jacot (b. 1934) has been preoccupied with human existence, which fascinates here in both its social and cultural, and political respects. From the 1950s through to the 1980s she worked for a series of prominent fashion and women's magazines, including Elle and Vogue. In 1989 she began her magnum opus, a photographic triptych on the woman as farm wife, feminist and factory worker, on which she worked for ten years. The photographs which she made in 2000 during a stay in a guest studio in Egypt are a good example of her style. Jacot is a pictorial photographer, which is to say that her work is related to painting. She is chiefly in search of light and beauty, and finds the image more important than the story. In A JOUR she is concerned with water, of vital importance for Egypt, the largest part of which is desert.

Courtesy Esther Woerdehoff Gallery (France)