IRÈNE JONAS MÉMOIRES DE CAMPAGNE

Irène Jonas has been a sociologist and photographer for 35 years. For the past fifteen years, her work has focused on visual sociology, which combines traditional sociological research with documentary photography. From this perspective, her latest study focused on the booksellers along the banks of the Seine in Paris. In some cases, it is the iconographic history that determines the sociological approach, as in her studies of family photography or the representation of death in photography. Her research and writing are generally accompanied by a body of documentary photographs, presented in the form of an exhibition and a publication. Invited by Christine Ollier to explore the Perche region's population and its transformations, Irène Jonas has turned her attention to observing the ancestral rural population in “confrontation” with the settlement of new neo-rural groups since the 1980s–90s. The aim is to study the evolution of the region, its social mix, and its cultural and social dynamics. The interest of this study lies in illustrating, through the voices of both longtime residents and newly settled inhabitants, how connections are built between these different population origins and social backgrounds. The documentary approach will provide an essential human dimension.