The Trail of Loss: Hervé Guibert and Annie Ernaux between Photography and Writing

Abstract

Both Hervé Guibert and Annie Ernaux published works made of a combination of text and pictures. Moreover, their style was often referred to as “photographic”. They also share a particular perspective on photography: every snapshot is an anticipation of the future disappearance; every picture represents death. It is not by chance that Guibert and Ernaux became more aware of this aspect while they were facing serious illness and the possibility of a fatal outcome. Ernaux has survived after her breast cancer and told her experience in L'usage de la photo, a memoir that includes some pictures taken by the author too. All his life Hervé Guibert, who died of AIDS, was fascinated by death, which it is easy to find in his photographs and literary works, like in L'image fantôme.