Être beau (Being beautiful)

« It all began with my son Jim, who was 11 at the time. One day he said to me:
- I was normal when I was in your tummy and then you caught a disease.
- What does normal mean?
- It means being beautiful and not dribbling! »
Frédérique Deghelt

For three years, the writer Frédérique Deghelt and the photographer Astrid di Crollalanza
recorded the images and voices of those who are generally never photographed and never heard; those we call the « disabled », without ever giving this word any definition other than a sense of something missing.

Twenty-six large and thought-provoking photographs encourage us to consider our own
image and the place of Others in society. It is a chance to closely explore our human
condition. Because being beautiful means being yourself.

Être beau, a project by Frédérique Deghelt & Astrid Di Crollalanza

Être beau includes 18 portraits sketched by Frédérique Deghelt, herself a mother of a child with special needs. She met people of all ages from all backgrounds and all professions, who all share the fact that they are not seen as « normal ». She shares a socially-conscious dialogue with us concerning self-image and the place of Others in our society. What sort of mirror do we present to these broken or infirm bodies, which are also repaired and transcended bodies? What are their physical and symbolic powers? What can they teach us?

Être beau involved eighteen modelling sessions in which each photographed person chose their own world, their own setting, to present themselves just as they wished. It is a chance to closely explore our human condition. Because being beautiful means being yourself.

This book is already being turned into a film and a show. It is also the subject of an exhibition featuring some thirty large-sized photographs displayed at the Musée de l’Homme.