Exposition

The first in Nathalie Le?ger's acclaimed genre-defying triptych of books about the struggles and obsessions of women artists. Exposition is the first in a triptych of books by the award-winning writer and archivist Nathalie Le?ger that includes Suite for Barbara Loden and The White Dress. In each, Le?ger sets the story of a female artist against the background of her own life and research-an archivist's journey into the self, into the lives that history hides from us.
Here, Le?ger's subject is the Countess of Castiglione (1837-1899), who at the dawn of photography dedicated herself to becoming the most photographed woman in the world, modeling for hundreds of photos, including "Scherzo di Follia, " among the most famous in history. Set long before our own "selfie" age, Exposition is a remarkably modern investigation into the curses of beauty, fame, vanity, and age, as well as the obsessive drive to control and commodify one's image.