In the small village of Simorre in southwestern France's Gers region, an artist workshop-gallery houses one of the country's most unique photography collections. Behind this extraordinary project are Jacques Barbier and Élise Pic, working together under the name "Le commun des mortels" (The Common People). Barbier is an artist, while Pic is both a collector and photographer. Together, they share a passionate dedication to vernacular photography – those everyday images taken by ordinary people that serve as quiet witnesses to daily life.
Their adventure began in 2013, and since then, their collection has grown to incredible proportions, now containing more than three million photographic objects. This extensive archive traces nearly two centuries of photography history, from 19th-century daguerreotypes to contemporary digital images. Every photograph, whether exceptional or mundane, has found its place in this comprehensive collection. Jacques and Élise don't collect based on market value or rarity, but rather follow a philosophy guided by sensitivity, curiosity, and the desire to preserve and transmit cultural memory.
In their workshop in Gers, the duo goes beyond simple preservation. Le commun des mortels has developed an educational practice nourished by their collection. Through publishing artist books, organizing educational workshops, and creating thematic exhibitions, they give new life to these forgotten images. Their clear objective is to create dialogue between archives and artistic creation, while transmitting a critical and poetic perspective on ordinary photography.
Among the many categories in their collection, one particularly captures attention: the "damages" section. Here, the photographs are far from perfect. They are folded, stained, torn, oxidized, burned, or nearly erased. These images, damaged by time or use, paradoxically become complete works of art in their own right. Freed from any original artistic intention, they reveal an involuntary aesthetic, a value born from imperfection.
It is from this damaged series that the exhibition "Dommage!" (Damage!) was born. Presented at the Photography Center of Lectoure, the exhibition serves as an immersion into the universe of these two collectors, inviting the public to enter their living archive and creative laboratory. Visitors discover an installation where each altered image tells not only its own material destiny but also speaks to how we view photography, memory, and the passage of time.
"Our work of collecting popular photos and creating unique archives aims to bring daily attention to this 'background noise,' giving it the interest it deserves," they explain. "What interests us? Questioning the ordinary and highlighting it, accounting for the life of common people." Their collection, both encyclopedic and deeply human, reminds us that behind every modest image lies a story that transforms the common into the universal.
Jacques Barbier has been exploring visual arts as a collector, gallery owner, and plastic artist-photographer for more than forty years. In 1983, he opened the first gallery in Paris dedicated to abstract painting of the 1950s, then directed a contemporary art gallery near the Centre Pompidou for nearly twenty years, participating in FIAC art fair. In 2013, he founded Le commun des mortels, a vast collection of vernacular photographs that now includes several hundred thousand images, questioning collective memory and the beauty of everyday life. Very active in photography promotion, he participates in numerous international events including LUSSAN1000PHOTOS, L'Été photographique de Lectoure, REVELAT, and Vintage Photo Festival. In 2021, he created the KLOUG Workshop-Gallery in Toulouse, then in 2024, established the Le commun des mortels workshop in Simorre, dedicated to photography and authorless images.
Élise Pic worked as a psychologist and trainer for eighteen years in social and judicial structures, developing reflection on otherness, memory, and traces. In 2018, she left the clinical field to pursue an artistic approach around image collection, silver printing, and publishing. Her meeting with Jacques Barbier in 2017 initiated joint research on vernacular photography and its poetic and political dimensions. Together, they founded the Le commun des mortels workshop in Simorre, a place for sharing and promoting everyday images.
The "Dommage!" exhibition will be displayed at the Art and Photography Center of Lectoure from October 11, 2025, to January 25, 2026, with free admission. More information is available at https://centre-photo-lectoure.fr/.
