Bathroom Manners

“Bathroom Manners” brings together a great number of photographies taken in bathrooms by inspired photographers like Bettina Rheims, Ellen von Unwerth, Araki, Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Daniel Frasnay, David Hurn, Romain Slocombe, Olivier Rebufa, Bertrand Desprez, Giselle Freund, Guy Boghossian, Bernard Plossu, Robert van der Hilst, Willy Ronis, Pierre & Gilles... Their perception reveals the depravities and bliss of the modern man in his intimate environment. Jean-Claude Kauffmann, sociologist and head of research at the C.N.R.S., was inspired by these captures and wrote a text shedding light upon our behaviours in this daily sanctuary. Now accessible to everyone, it established itself as the key space to measure the upheaval of habits and the birth of a new relationship to our body. According to Kaufmann, “the favoured space for modern ceremonial behaviour is without a doubt the bathroom. Old reserves and prudishness seem to have suddenly vanished, individuals performing very intimate hygiene procedures in front of their kin, without any embarrassement, as if they were by themselves.” Between voyeurism and sociological reporting, instants captured on the spot or staged, the bathroom has become the framework for intimist photography, which neverthless reveals the new foundations of our society.