Clegg & Guttmann's Power Portraits at Passerelle, Brest

The exhibition 'Clegg & Guttmann' at Centre d'art Passerelle in Brest, running from September 13 to December 19, 2012, presents four series of staged portraits created between 1981 and 2006: Refusés, Fictifs, Commandés, and Collaborations. The duo, emblematic of 1980s staged photography, deconstructs representations of power by photographing subjects—from wealthy families and corporate leaders to actors playing businessmen—in artificial settings that highlight the performativity of their poses. The portraits blur the line between real and fictional power, showing that while power corresponds to actual social positions, its staging contributes to its effectiveness. Through these mise en abîme scenarios, Clegg & Guttmann present fictions of fictions, challenging the classical paradigm of photography as an unaltered transmission of the world's image.