Immortels 1996

“I had informed the Académie Française of my project, after which I met the Immortals individually to take portraits and collect manuscripts which I compiled in a book. It took two years to convince and photograph them. Each member invited me to a place of their choosing. Jacqueline de Romilly, Jean Dutourd, and Pierre Moinot were at their homes, Jacques Laurent was at the Brasserie Lipp, Claude Lévi-Strauss at the Collège de France, Maurice Schumann at the Senate, José Cabanis in a hotel, Jean-François Deniau at the National Assembly, Jean d’Ormesson at Unesco, Maurice Druon at the Academy itself […]. After shooting each image, I asked: ‘If you were not yourself, who would you have liked be?’ I then asked each person to write their answer by hand. Lines of the face followed by the drawing of letters.” - Jean-Baptiste Huynh

With the support of the Hewlett-Packard France corporate foundation.