Sophie Calle (1953) is a contemporary French conceptual artist, born in Paris, is best known for her work exploring personal relationships. Calle worked across different media in photography, film and text – her often controversial photographs involve documentation of her subjects lives, like her work Address Book (1983) where she copied a stranger’s address book and used it to investigate every aspect of his life. Calle said: “Establishing rules and following them in restful. If you follow someone, you don’t have to wonder where you’re going to eat. They take you to their restaurant. The choice is made for you.” Calle studied with Jean Baudrillard after she spent years travelling. Her early series of photography were a way of reconnecting with Paris. Calle is currently working and living in the city, continuing to explore themes of intimacy, identity and the connection between herself and her subjects.
Sophie Calle produced a mixture of art with daily life in her conceptual photography, The Chromatic Diet. For six days, Calle consumed a diet of a single food colour, which was considered a trademark of her photography.
Her creativity and imagination in her series depicts a powerful portrayal, giving the viewer the pleasure of the real. Calle adapted to the art in order to provoke more power from her series. The Chromatic Diet made Calle involved through the images and into the narrative. Calle created a new meaning to the viewer of the image, as the viewer knows the response and involvement of Calle. Her photography is a play on modernism, provoking and pushing boundaries of her private life. Calle is considered to be a character in most of her work, using the viewer as the main character, she evokes a powerful character. The meanings, representation and background of her work makes her photograph – there is much more than what the eye sees.