For this sixteenth edition of the Planches Contact Festival, three projects particularly caught my attention. Three perspectives, three territories. Together, they paint a picture of femininity far removed from clichés: the intimate confronted with the political in Myriam Boulos’ work, the rewriting of inherited narratives in Henrike Stahl’s work, and the daily lives of young women between city and countryside in Anaïs Ondet’s work.
1. Myriam Boulos, Looking for Tenderness
Lebanese photographer and member of Magnum photos, Myriam Boulos creates a dialogue between the intimate and the political. Her work explores the intimacy of her generation through subjects such as fantasies, against the backdrop of recent events in Lebanon: the 2019 revolution, the explosion in the port of Beirut, and the rise of social and economic violence. It was in Beirut that she completed her residency for Planches Contact, making this edition the first to include a residency outside Normandy.
Through her soft and sensual images, she attempts to reveal the “world within us” that society teaches us to hide, even as it normalizes everyday violence. She approaches this subject in a collaborative and participatory manner: from her sister to her partner, friends, and strangers, each of her models chooses how they want to be photographed.
Each image also seems to carry within it a personal revolution, that of the right to exist, to love, to desire, to show oneself. Her work thus becomes a collective diary, combining rebellion, desire, vulnerability, and courage. It is essential work, but impossible to exhibit in Lebanon today, as it would endanger those it depicts. This makes it all the more valuable to discover the work here in Deauville.
2. Henrike Stahl, La Belle au bois Normand
When Henrike Stahl saw her 13-year-old daughter dreaming of being a princess, she didn’t try to shatter the illusion, but rather tried to broaden her horizons: giving her the keys to write her own story, without waiting for a supposed Prince Charming.
So the German photographer spent her residency exploring several Norman castles. It was not their style or architecture that interested her, but the people who live in them today. She met and interviewed owners from all walks of life, who welcomed her into the intimacy of their daily lives. These people are not necessarily heirs from the aristocracy, but women and men from varied backgrounds, united by the same dream: to live in a castle. Her portraits thus show figures who live, restore, organize, and work to make this dream a reality.
Between documentary and fantasy, her images, many of which are composed of cutouts and collages, give us the impression of observing these scenes of life through a keyhole and thus participating in a contemporary fairy tale.
3. Anaïs Ondet, Les filles d’ici (The Girls from Around Here)
With Anaïs Ondet, we are immersed in a Normandy far removed from the postcards, in those “interstitial zones” between the countryside and the city. She photographs the “local girls” and seeks to capture their daily lives, their questions, and their aspirations.
With a delicate touch, Anaïs Ondet explores this young femininity, “those who are not afraid of calm,” and in doing so questions what it means to “be a woman today,” where identity is constructed far from the big cities.
This work, which began in Deauville as part of Planches Contact, will continue in other locations in France. It is a way of showing that calm is not the absence of intensity, but another way of existing.
Planches Contact Festival 2025
October 18, 2025 to January 4, 2026
planchescontact.fr
