Born in 1953 in quite an intellectual and creative environment, French writer, photographer and installation artist Sophie Calle was introduced to the artistic scene at a very early age. Due to both her father’s position as a renowned art collector and former director of the Nimes’ Carré d’Art and her mother’s devotion to her career as a book critic and press attaché, Sophie Calle’s upbringing was rather unconventional – something that made it just natural to become the major theme of her work. Hardly surprisingly, her career path was likewise unorthodox. After studying for a diploma under postmodernist thinker Jean Baudrillard, she spent years travelling across the world and discovered her passion for photography at the age of 26. Rejecting conventional systems of education and inspired by American photographer Duane Michals, Sophie Calle developed her own kind of experimental practice mostly self-taught. Blending installation, photography, text and performance, she created highly conceptual and personal projects, which, intertwined with a documentary approach towards strangers, ultimately resulted in pieces that blurred the boundaries between the private and public spheres. Throughout her career, she has received numerous prestigious accolades, including the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography in 2010.
