from the cameras installed in automatic teller
machines. In dealing with the visual records of
daily financial transactions, she pondered the var-
ious ways by which she could realize a work drawn
from this material. The images in turn seemed to
thwart Calle’s efforts, and the artist ended up with
a work that she declared ‘‘unfinished.’’
Collaboration has played a large role in many of
Calle’s projects. In 1992, Calle co-directed a fea-
ture-length video with the American photographer
Greg Shepherd entitledNo Sex Last Night (Double
Blind), which documented their road trip taken in a
Cadillac from New York to California. Each used a
separate camera to record the journey and their
increasingly tense relations. For the exhibition
Double Game, Calle worked with the writer Paul
Auster, who had previously created a fictional
character based on Calle who appeared in his
1992 novelLeviathan. Both also share an interest
in private detectives, as Calle hired one to trace her
steps in the 1981 work,The Shadow, and Auster’s
acclaimedNew York Trilogy(1985–86) reworks the
conventions of the detective novel. Calle later
asked Auster if he would conjure another character
for her to ‘‘inhabit’’ herself, and inspire works for
the artist to then ‘‘create.’’ The two have commu-
nicated back and forth in this way, blurring the
edges between fantasy and reality.
Calle often merges realms of fact and fiction in
her diverse body of work, creating a third compel-
ling entity, which combines her voice or text, along
with a series of images in accordance with a theme.
She tends to spy on other participants, both willing
and unwilling, and equally to reveal in calculated
fashion more and more aspects of her own private
(and public) identity. This frequently results in an
effect resembling a mirage, hallucination, or hall of
mirrors, as Calle departs from the exactitude of
photographic facts and instead favors the poetic
character of spoken truths.
MARTINPatrickSeealso:Photography in France; Representation
and Gender
Biography
Born in Paris, France, 9 October 1953. Lives and works in
Paris and New York.
Individual Exhibitions
1980 The Bronx; Fashion Moda Gallery; New York, New
York
1981 The Sleepers; Galerie Canon; Geneva, Switzerland
1983 The Hotel; Galerie Chantal Crousel; Paris, France
1986 The Blind; Galerie Crousel-Hussenot; Paris, France
1989 Sophie Calle, A Survey; Fred Hoffman Gallery; Los
Angeles, California
1990 TheTombs;GaleriaLaMaquinaEspanola;Seville,Spain
1991 Sophie Calle, a`suivre...; ARC Muse ́e d’Art Moderne
de la Ville de Paris; Paris, France
1993 Last Seen; Leo Castelli Gallery; New York, New York
Sophie Calle: Proofs; Hood Museum of Art; Dart-
mouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire
1994 Absence; Galerie Chantal Crousel; Paris, France
1995 Proofs; University Art Museum, University of Cali-
fornia; Santa Barbara, California
The Detachment; Galerie Arndt & Partner; Berlin, Germany
1997 Suite ve ́netienne; White Cube; London, England
1998 Doubles Jeux; Centre national de la photographie;
Paris, France
The Birthday Ceremony; Tate Gallery; London, Eng-
land
1999 Souvenirs de Berlin-Est; Muse ́e d’art moderne et con-
temporain; Strasbourg. France
Appointment; Freud Museum; London, England
2000 Die wahren Geschichten der Sophie Calle; Museum
Fridericianum; Kassel, Germany
2002 Sophie Calle; Sprengel Museum; Hannover, Germany
2003 M’as-tu-vue; Muse ́e national d’art moderne; Georges
Centre Pompidou, Paris, FranceGroup Exhibitions
1980 XI Biennale de Paris. Manifestation internationale des
jeunes artistes; Muse ́e d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris;
Paris, France
1981 Autoportraits photographiques, 1898–1981; Centre
Georges Pompidou; Paris, France
1982 Du Livre; Muse ́e des Beaux-Arts; Rouen, France
1983 Il n’y a pas a`proprement parler une histoire...; Maison
de la culture; Rennes, France
1984 Photographie contemporaine en France; Centre
Georges Pompidou; Paris, France
1985 Kunst mit Eigen-Sinn; Museum moderner Kunst;
Vienna, Austria
1988 Beyond the Image. FotoFest ‘88; Houston Center for
Photography; Houston, Texas
1989 Culture Medium; International Center of Photogra-
phy; New York, New York
Tenir l’image a`distance; Muse ́e d’art contemporain;
Montreal, Canada
L’invention d’un art; Centre Pompidou; Paris, France
1990 The Ready-made Boomerang; Sydney Biennale; Syd-
ney, Australia
Seven Obsessions; Whitechapel Art Gallery; London,
England
Images in Transition: Photographic Representation
Towards the 90s; National Museum of Modern Art,
Kyoto/National Museum of Modern Art; Tokyo, Japan
1991 Dislocations; Museum of Modern Art; New York,
New York
1992 Doubletake: Collective Memory and Contemporary
Art; Hayward Gallery; London, England
1993 Whitney Biennial; Whitney Museum of American Art;
New York, New York
1995 Fe ́minin/Masculin. Le sexe de l’art; Centre Georges
Pompidou; Paris, France
1996 Passions prive ́es; Muse ́e d’Art Moderne de la Ville de
Paris; Paris, FranceCALLE, SOPHIE