Photographer Laurencine Lot Discusses ‘Sacred Monsters’

Chancellor’s distinguished lecturer Laurencine Lot visited UCI last Wednesday to lecture on her experiences as photographer of the venerated Comédie-Française, France’s major classical theatre founded in 1680. During her visit, she took the opportunity to photograph several drama students in class, capturing the heart and spirit of acting.

Laurencine Lot’s photographs of French and European theatre have earned worldwide acclaim for their intimate portrayal of stage actors. She has also brought her work to places such as Barcelona, Spain, Luxembourg and Moscow, Russia.

Lot began her freelance photography in 1973 as a young university student in Paris, when she was captivated by John-Michael Tebelak’s “Godspell,” playing at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin, which she saw over 70 times. Thereafter, equipped with only a small matchbox camera, Lot started photographing the Comédie-Française and other stages around Paris and Europe, gaining reputation and authority as a gifted photographer of theater. For over 30 years, attending thousands of plays, Lot has literally catalogued the history of French theatre, producing remarkably visceral images of France’s “monstres sacrés” (sacred monsters).

Although there exists no English equivalent to this bizarre moniker, Lot describes these “sacred monsters” as those actors who possess “all the qualities of acting required to reach God at some point.”

Lot aims to shoot and arrest the sacred monster in her divine climax, which flees from scene to scene. And in her vivid photographs, rather than ceasing to be when the play ends, the soul of the actor’s character is preserved and kept alive, suspended in its brilliant animation and passion.

Lot has photographed famous sacred monsters such as Jeanne Moreau, Maria Casarès, Carlotta Ikeda and Jean-Claude Drouot. Lot told of a particularly close relationship with Maria Casarès, whom she photographed doing her make-up backstage. By this form of contact, befriending and meeting her subjects backstage, Lot put personality to otherwise anonymous faces. Lot bridges photographer with subject and injects herself into the theatre culture, becoming a part of it, rather than sitting distant in the audience.

Upon being asked of her future projects or plans, Lot reveals the nature of not only her photography, but her attitude towards her profession: a day-by-day, whimsical approach. When I asked her if she had any plans to photograph American Broadway, she said she would not rule it out, and if a whim took her, she possibly may. She also describes her photography in much the same manner, describing her work as rooted in “anticipation and instinct.” Her method is far from conventional, rather, it is like the nuances and vagaries of acting—unpredictable and wanton.

Some of her photographs were showcased in the Cal-IT2 Atrium last week. Her last exhibit was in Moscow, Russia. In this new century, Lot has already published four telling books of the stage: “La Comédie-Française, Trente Ans de Creation Théâtrale” (2003), with photographs from the theater company’s last thirty years; “Monstres Sacrés, Sacrés Comédien” (2004), with photographs of “sacred monsters” from numerous theaters around France; “Carlotta Ikeda: Danse Butô et au-delà” (2005), following Carlotta Ikeda’s 25 year acting career; and the most recent “Catherine Samie, une enfant de Molière” (2007), which follows the long and famous career of Catherine Samie, deemed as one of France’s most successful classical actresses. In 2002, Lot also published Tous les Vélos du monde, in which photographs of bicycles from all over the world appear.

Lot describes her vocation as a “magical job,” and plans to continue photographing theater for the rest of her life. Although photography is her primary occupation, she also translates books from English and German to her native French, including her own renditions of English psychologist Gregory Bateson.

Lot is cherished in the prolific and expansive French theater and she certainly reciprocates its sentiments with love, patronage, and a lifelong devotion to the stage. She lives in Paris with her husband, playwright and novelist Jean Verdun.