Bérangère Fromont's République Portrays

Photographer Bérangère Fromont has released a photo book and exhibition titled République, focusing on the young skateboarders of Paris's Place de la République. The project, published by Chose Commune and showing at the Institut pour la Photographie in Lille from 18 September 2026 to 16 January 2027, captures what Fromont calls the 'Princes of the Square'.

Fromont tells Dazed that she initially aimed to document the square itself, a historic gathering point for protests and celebrations. She quickly realized the skateboarders were its constant inhabitants.

A Quieter Form of Resistance

The series turns away from the square's political spectacles. Instead, it finds a different kind of resistance in the skaters' lifestyle. Fromont explains that their choice of gentleness and poetic expression feels radical amid current uncertainties. They are not shouting slogans. They are engaged in a quieter pursuit, repurposing public architecture for play.

This theme connects to Fromont's broader work, which often explores individual and collective resistance. Her previous projects include L’amour seul brisera nos cœurs from 2022, addressing lesbian love in art history, and Except the Clouds from 2018, about revolts in Athens.

Technical Ordeal and Visual Harmony

The photographic process was a deliberate ordeal. Fromont used a hefty medium-format Mamiya film camera with a 50 mm lens, shooting under harsh summer sun. She describes returning daily in 40-degree heat with four kilograms of gear, often facing long stretches without a successful shot. The analogue-only project took three years to complete.

She compares her 'failure-plagued' process to the skaters' own experiences. Both require variables to align-light, movement, technique, and a moment of grace. This shared mindset, she says, fueled her persistence.

Fromont sought a timeless, sculptural quality in her images. Her stark light sculpts the subjects' features, creating a visual harmony with the square's existing bronze and stone statues.

The Princes of the Square

The portraits highlight contrast. They show visible scars and melancholic gazes alongside postures of nonchalance and self-assuredness. Fromont wanted to evoke both grace and vulnerability, recalling chroniclers of adolescence like Gus Van Sant and photographer Paul Graham.

A key difference is her eschewal of posed portraits. She shot wide-angle photographs, later cropping them to isolate compelling details of faces and bruised torsos. The result frames the skaters on a dramatic stage, bathed in harsh light.

Fromont does not shy away from her admiration. Capturing this beauty, she insists, was not an act of fabrication. It was simply an act of seeing what was already there. The exhibition opens in Lille this September.