How can we overcome the problem of representation, asks Collier Schorr in Paris

‘I have always thought of photography as problematic,’ says New York-based photographer Collier Schorr [b. 1963]. ‘I think some of the problems are solved by working long enough to address the issues – or to settle into the reality of the practice. I was always worried about taking pictures of women, which is why I shot boys for the first ten years of my career.’

For four decades, Schorr has untangled the challenges in visually representing the body with her photographs which embrace the contradictions inherent in both identity and a more mainstream definition of beauty. Her work, including photographs, collages, video and drawings, encompasses fields including fashion photography, which she took up in the nineties, partly as a way to address the problem of how to represent female and queer identities.

Schorr continues to puzzle away at these problems, facing them head-on in the current exhibition at Modern Art in Paris. Problems and Other Stories – the title taken from a John Updike collection of short stories from the seventies – resists easy classification. Emotion, strength and power line the curves of the artists and performers in Schorr’s portraits here.

Included are works sparked by others, including Milo Cassidy, a trans man that Schorr has been working with for the past two years. ‘The works featuring Milo in this new show were kind of full circle: someone like me, but not walking around in the same identity,’ says Schorr. ‘For this show, the people may be less my problem and more: why am I a problem for others? How gender 'problems' others. The sentence is intentional. But that wouldn’t be the show’s overarching mandate. Many bodies of work are floating around, but that could be a site of tension for all of them.’

For Schorr, the work becomes less about an understanding between artist and subject as she progresses throughout her career. ‘I used to see myself as the old woman in the shoe, with so many subjects I didn’t know what to do. It’s less like that at the moment because of the sense of community I share with people like Milo.’

Other works in the exhibition, including collages and photographs, are drawn from Schorr’s video installation, Akerman Ballet, featuring seven dancers, including Schorr. Following her ballet and modern dance training in 2018, she began working more intensively in ballet in advance of her full-scale adaptation Chantal Akerman's 1974 film, Je tu il elle.

‘I was so happy to escape using my eyes – or even my voice. There’s a quick discussion before each scene is danced, and then I disappear into directing with my body – or being pushed by another body. There is a different kind of release and discovery [that comes with dancing]. In the beginning, I felt a frustration that I didn’t have a camera in my hands, but I have long forgotten that, because for 90 per cent of the time, I don’t have it and don’t miss it. I like the look of an automated recording, and when I do pick it up, it feels really intentional.’

Collier Schorr, 'Problems and Other Stories' at Modern Art Paris until 4 April 2026