Baudoin Lebon Gallery shows the 47 plates of "la Salpêtrière’s" photography department, 30 years after their presentation at Texbraun Gallery in 1984. These pictures, revealed at that time as part of the “From anxiety to ecstasy” exhibition, depict the physical symptoms of hysteria.

Around 1880, medical science starts making most of technical progress in the photography area: like Muybridge, successive images represent progressive deformation on limbs and faces, and instantaneousness allows capturing the body tension on the height of physical crisis. Submissive patients are “invited” to pose in a special setting: Professor Charcot prompts real hysterical crises for the needs of the taking shots. Does this meticulous staging give an artistic aspect to these scientific images?

Today’s representation of oddness aspects of humankind renews itself through contemporary artistic photography. We will exhibit Joel-Peter Witkin and Roger Ballen and Les Krims work arts: these artists’ creations match "la Salpêtrière" plates, first of all from a plastic point of view but also because of patients’ intense presence.

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