Les Douches la Galerie is pleased to present Journeys in Italy, an exhibition dedicated to Hervé Guibert, tracing his deep artistic connection with Italy through photography. From 30 January to 3 April 2025, a selection of black-and-white images—portraits, still lifes, and landscapes—will reveal the country’s profound influence on the writer-photographer.
Between 1979 and 1990, Italy was both a sanctuary and a source of inspiration for Guibert. His images, taken with a compact Rollei 35 gifted by his father, capture fleeting moments of intimacy and introspection. From his stay at Rome’s Villa Medici (1987–1989) to his final resting place on Elba, his photographic journey unfolds in a dialogue with his literary work, where words and images echo each other.
Guibert’s lens transforms the ordinary into the poetic: friends and lovers appear both vulnerable and sculptural, landscapes dissolve into silhouettes, and still lifes—such as his meticulously arranged desk at Villa Medici—become enigmatic narratives. His photographs, infused with a painterly light reminiscent of Vermeer, offer a meditation on memory, desire, and the impermanence of time.
“Journeys in Italy” invites viewers to discover Guibert’s unique vision—where literature and photography intertwine, capturing the quiet tension between presence and absence, shadow and illumination.

About the Author

Hervé Guibert (Paris, 1955–1991) – Writer, Photographer, and Critic.
Hervé Guibert was a writer, photographer, and influential photography critic. He published his first book, La Mort propagande, in 1977 at just 22 years old. That same year, he began contributing a photography column to Le Monde, where he remained a key critic until 1985, writing about artists, writers, and intellectuals such as Patrice Chéreau, Roland Barthes, Isabelle Adjani, Michel Foucault, Miquel Barceló, and Sophie Calle.
Between 1977 and his untimely death in 1991, Guibert authored over twenty-five novels and short stories, all in the first person, including Suzanne et Louise (1980), L’Image fantôme (1982), Des aveugles (1985), and Fou de Vincent (1989). His 1990 novel, À l’ami qui ne m’a pas sauvé la vie, brought him widespread recognition and played a pivotal role in shifting public perception of AIDS in France. In 1992, French television aired La Pudeur ou l’impudeur, a posthumous documentary Guibert filmed about himself as he faced the final stages of his illness.
His photographic work has been the subject of major retrospectives, including exhibitions at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris (2011) and the Loewe Foundation in Madrid (2019). More recent solo shows have been held at Callicoon Fine Arts in New York (2014, 2019), Les Douches la Galerie in Paris (2018, 2020, 2021), Kristina Kite Gallery in Los Angeles (2018), and Galerie Felix Gaudlitz in Vienna (2020).

Hervé Guibert: Journeys in Italy
30 January – 3 April 2025
Les Douches la Galerie

More info:
https://www.lesdoucheslagalerie.com/