MONIQUE JACOT – Reports and Daydreams

Photographs. Polaroids. Transfers. Photograms

Monique Jacot

In Switzerland, Monique Jacot is viewed as a reporter, a realist, and a rebel, which sums up the artistically and politically committed photographer rather aptly. Born in Neuchâtel, Jacot started with freelance contract work for international magazines such as Die Woche, Du, Annabelle, Réalités, and Vogue following her training at the École des Arts et Métiers in Vevey (1953–56), run by Gertrude Fehr. The hard lessons learned in the daily struggle for commissions and the realisation of projects on-site and around the world have made her an established European photographer of socio-political reports (e.g. Women Farmworkers and Life in Task Work). These insightful long-term projects present a panorama of the everyday lives of her protagonists that is both unflattering and grandiose.
On the other hand, Jacot, a passionate photographer, also loves to work in the darkroom, where her experiments yield surprising results: poetic Polaroids, contrasting transfers, and surreal photograms.