Madeleine de Sinéty

Editions du Jeu de Paume

Publication date : 2025/12/01
Weight 260 g / Dimensions 22 x 31 cm / 56 pages
ISBN 9782487132030

The daughter of aristocrats, Madeleine de Sinéty found her emancipation in photography, which led her to discover new places and meet new people. From the 1970s onwards, she documented the changes in the neighbourhoods around Montparnasse station in Paris and Manhattan in New York with a sensitive eye, while also producing a report on the last steam trains, thanks to the connections she had forged with railway workers. Her closeness to her subjects became her signature style. Poilley’s thousands of images (1972-1991), her major legacy, are the result of her immersion in the way of life of this Breton village, where farmers still combine their labour with that of animals. The artist shared the daily life of the families, helping with the work in the fields, her camera around her neck. Her black-and-white photographs of Rangeley, Maine, where she settled in 1985, still convey the humanity and tenderness of her unique gaze. Through 60 images, many of which are unpublished, this album offers an immersion into the photographer’s work, intertwined with her astonishing life story.