We Others

This book, the first monograph devoted to the photographic work of American artist Donna Gottschalk, offers an immersion into her work thanks to unpublished research by author and theorist Hélène Giannecchini, complemented by numerous interviews with the photographer. The work of Donna Gottschalk, virtually unknown in France, paints a social and political portrait of invisible America, from the late 1960s to the 1980s, that still resonates strongly today. Her sensitive and committed approach focuses in particular on people on the margins - young single mothers, teenagers at odds with their families, juvenile delinquents... - and on the queer community, to which she herself belongs. Donna Gottschalk shows those who receive little attention, those who live in economic and emotional fragility, those who suffer homophobia and social rejection. The book will weave a dialogue between Donna Gottschalk's images and Hélène Giannecchini's texts, recounting this America of the margins and giving voice to lives that are ignored. It will be supplemented by a long interview between the two women and a rich critical apparatus, including previously unpublished archive documents and two essays by Carla Williams, American photographer and art historian, and Julie Héraut, co-curator of the exhibition to be held at Le Bal in summer 2025.