Saintes Profanes

Yann Cœuru Photographie - Ruoms, 2025

There are faces that carry the strange certainty we have already met them — on an altarpiece, in a forgotten chapel, somewhere in a half-remembered pagan legend. This image belongs to that family. With this series, I wanted to photograph what the saints might have been, had we let them keep their bodies: fully alive, luminous without contrition, adorned like queens of their own story. The crown of thorns becomes a crown of rays. The veil, once a symbol of modesty, now frames a gaze that no longer lowers itself. Black lace and velvet recall the baroque; the golden makeup on copper skin evokes the precious wooden icons of country churches. This is not a provocation. It is a reconciliation — between the sacredness long denied to women in the flesh, and the beauty for which they were so often blamed. Photographed at Studio Cœuru, in single light, on a hand-painted backdrop. — Yann Cœuru

Limited edition of 30