Madeleine de Sinéty - Une vie

Through this previously unseen retrospective, the Jeu de Paume invites viewers to discover the singular vision of photographer Madeleine de Sinéty (1934–2011), presented at the Château de Tours in 2025 and then in Paris in 2026.

Trained at the École des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in the late 1950s, she left Paris between 1972 and 1981 to settle in the small Breton village of Poilley, where she stayed repeatedly into the 1990s. Madeleine de Sinéty photographed the lives of its inhabitants in both black and white and color. She later organized slide projections to return the images to the residents. From the 1980s she settled in the United States—first in California, then in Maine—and continued to photograph. She also produced work in Africa, in Uganda, some of which was exhibited at the Portland Museum in 2011.

In 1996, the Bibliothèque nationale de France mounted an exhibition of her work. The body of work she leaves behind, rich and dense—positioned between art and documentary, reportage and archive—results from a keen observation of reality and an immersive engagement with the lifestyles of the families with whom she shared daily life and forged lasting friendships. With humanity and tenderness, she revealed traditions and rites specific to these rural populations, uncovered personal and collective histories, and delivered a subjective, personal account of a period during which the rural world was transforming. The exhibition will be an opportunity to attempt to trace this singular itinerary, between France and the United States via Africa.

Curators: Jérôme Sother and Quentin Bajac

Cover: Madeleine de Sinéty, Poilley, 1974 © Estate of Madeleine de Sinéty