Overview

WINNER OF THE 2022 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE **Serialized in The New Yorker** An account of Annie Ernaux's love affair with journalist Marc Marie while she was undergoing treatment for cancer, and their combined project to document images and memories. Includes 14 color still-life photographs by the authors. A LitHub Most Anticipated Book of 2024 WINNER OF THE 2022 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE **Serialized in The New Yorker** An account of Annie Ernaux's love affair with journalist Marc Marie while she was undergoing treatment for cancer, and their combined project to document images and memories. Includes 14 color still-life photographs by the authors. A LitHub Most Anticipated Book of 2024 ""A must-read for lovers of words, images, and Ernaux herself. So. . . everyone?""-Jessie Gaynor, LitHub ""Annie Ernaux has long foregrounded physical and emotional sensations as the building blocks of her autobiographical writing. However, it is in The Use of Photography where the connection between the body and subjectivity most powerfully emerges.""-Lisa Connell in French Forum ""These photos, in which the bodies are absent, and the eroticism is only represented by the abandoned clothes, were a reminder of my possible, permanent absence.""-Annie Ernaux Annie Ernaux and Marc Marie met in January 2003 and became lovers almost immediately. A short time later, he accompanied her to the Institut Curie, where she was having surgery for breast cancer. A deep bond formed between Annie and Marc precisely during this time of great uncertainty within Ernaux as to whether she would live or die from the cancer. Early in their affair, Ernaux found herself entranced each morning by the sight of clothes strewn about, chairs out of place, and the remains of their last meal of the evening before still on the table. The two lovers began to take still life photographs, and to write. Their efforts to save the fleeting beauty of these moments were, as Ernaux would describe later in an interview, ""material proof of what had happened there, of love."" The Use of Photography is a defining work in Ernaux's career, leading directly to the book that would come next, her masterpiece, The Years. ""Annie Ernaux's work presents a breathtakingly frank, fearless, many-sided account of the female experience during the past century.""-Liesl Schillinger, Oprah Daily

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9781644214138

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Reviews

"""Nobel Prize winner Ernaux (The Young Man) and French journalist Marie recount their early-2000s affair through the lens of 14 photographs in this tender and evocative memoir. The pair met in 2003, when Ernaux was recovering from surgery and undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer. After their first few sexual encounters, Ernaux began photographing the aftermath, resulting in lush, jumbled, and erotic images punctuated with lurid red lingerie or a pair of upright shoes that seemed to suggest a ghostly presence. In alternating chapters, Ernaux and Marie analyze photographs from that period, discussing the specter of death that hung over their trysts (at one point, Ernaux bought herself a funeral plot), the sweet devotion Marie felt for his ailing 'mermaid woman,' and eventually, the end of their relationship. Each author’s candor—about their sexuality as well as the importance of such an intense connection at that crossroads in their lives—is remarkable, and is enhanced rather than obscured by the framework of photographic analysis. The results are generous, steamy, and unexpectedly moving."" —Publishers Weekly ""In The Use of Photography, first published in 2005, Ernaux and journalist Marc Marie document their affair, through text and photos, as Ernaux is undergoing cancer treatments. A must-read for lovers of words, images, and Ernaux herself. So… everyone?"" —Jessie Gaynor, LitHub, Most Anticipated Books of 2024 ""The Use of Photography by Annie Ernaux and Marc Marie, translated by Alison L. Strayer… [A] new book from the 83-year-old French writer, who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2022, is a literary event, and this 2005 work, now translated, is no exception."" —Tom Beer, Kirkus"

"""Nobel Prize winner Ernaux (The Young Man) and French journalist Marie recount their early-2000s affair through the lens of 14 photographs in this tender and evocative memoir. The pair met in 2003, when Ernaux was recovering from surgery and undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer. After their first few sexual encounters, Ernaux began photographing the aftermath, resulting in lush, jumbled, and erotic images punctuated with lurid red lingerie or a pair of upright shoes that seemed to suggest a ghostly presence. In alternating chapters, Ernaux and Marie analyze photographs from that period, discussing the specter of death that hung over their trysts (at one point, Ernaux bought herself a funeral plot), the sweet devotion Marie felt for his ailing 'mermaid woman,' and eventually, the end of their relationship. Each author’s candor—about their sexuality as well as the importance of such an intense connection at that crossroads in their lives—is remarkable, and is enhanced rather than obscured by the framework of photographic analysis. The results are generous, steamy, and unexpectedly moving."" —Publishers Weekly ""In The Use of Photography, first published in 2005, Ernaux and journalist Marc Marie document their affair, through text and photos, as Ernaux is undergoing cancer treatments. A must-read for lovers of words, images, and Ernaux herself. So… everyone?"" —Jessie Gaynor, LitHub, Most Anticipated Books of 2024"

"""In The Use of Photography, first published in 2005, Ernaux and journalist Marc Marie document their affair, through text and photos, as Ernaux is undergoing cancer treatments. A must-read for lovers of words, images, and Ernaux herself. So… everyone?"" —Jessie Gaynor, LitHub, Most Anticipated Books of 2024"

Author Information

The author of some twenty works of fiction and memoir, ANNIE ERNAUX is considered by many to be France's most important writer. In 2022, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. She has also won the Prix Renaudot for A Man's Place and the Marguerite Yourcenar Prize for her body of work. More recently she received the International Strega Prize, the Prix Formentor, the French-American Translation Prize, and the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation for The Years, which was also shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize. Her other works include Exteriors, A Girl's Story, A Woman's Story, The Possession, Simple Passion, Happening, I Remain in Darkness, Shame, A Frozen Woman, A Man's Place, and The Young Man. MARC MARIE was a French photographer and journalist. ALISON L. STRAYER is a Canadian writer and translator. Her work has been shortlisted for the Governor General's Award for Literature and for Translation, the Grand Prix du livre de Montreal, and the Prix litteraire France-Quebec. She lives in Paris.

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