Philippe Jarrigeon

“Play”, Philippe Jarrigeon’s first monograph, celebrates 15 years of deliciously deviant photography. The polysemic term “Play” is the “game” echoing with the insolence and the sense of humour that inhabit each image. It is the acting game evoking the major role held by the models who are staged. It is also the start of a video, a tune, a new “game”. Versailles Palace, a breast-shaped cake, a cheeky dog disturbing an elegant portrait, co-exist with a face to face of an inoffensive gun and glamour puddle. All of it forms a visual library of our collective pop culture, with one peculiarity: everything seems offbeat. The edit of images here has been thought out like a zapping session, where glam goes hand in hand with plain consumer good, the too serious with the too funny. “Play” is the parody of a logbook, the diary of a great Hollywood studio at the teen years of Golden Age.