Michelle Debat's 'L'impossible image' Explores Time in Photography and Dance

In her study 'L'impossible image,' Michelle Debat explores the intersection of photography, dance, and choreography, emphasizing their collective relationship with time. The book shifts focus from dance photography to how these art forms create 'graphies that center on time,' examining the convergence of dance concepts with photographic ideas like body and support, instant and moment, image and gaze, as well as space and time. Historical insights begin with Muybridge and Marey’s exploration of time, alongside analyses of how choreographic and photographic works represent temporality, such as the pose as a disruption in a spatiotemporal flow (photography) and a pause in motion (dance). Debat draws on examples from artists like Sarah Walz, Odile Duboc, and Trisha Brown to revisit themes of errance and flânerie, relational imagery, theatricality, gesture, and orthosis. The book seeks to uncover and interpret the dynamics of life and time within dance and photography. It is published by Éditions la Lettre volée, featuring a text by Christophe Kihm.