Curatorial research residency – Lou Stoppard at the MEP

As part of its policy of supporting research, the MEP is pleased to welcome the British curator Lou Stoppard for a one-month curatorial research residency based on its collections, hosted in its Library.

From the 4th to 30th of April, 2022, Lou Stoppard will develop a research project on the link between Annie Ernaux’s writing and photography. She will use as her starting point Journal du Dehors and will examine the author’s writing through the prism of the history of street photography in France, drawing on the extensive collections of the MEP.

Part chronicle, part diary, Journal du Dehors is a seven-year chronicle of a life in the Paris suburbs as experienced by the author.

Lou Stoppard

Portrait of Lou Stoppard
© Nik Hartley

Lou Stoppard is a London-based writer and curator. She has written for The Financial Times, Aperture, The New York Times and The New Yorker. Between 2011 and 2017, Stoppard worked at the fashion and moving image website SHOWstudio, serving as the platform’s editor for a number of years. She has curated a variety of exhibitions including North: Fashioning Identity, an exploration of visual representations of the North of England, at Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool and Somerset House, London, and The Hoodie, at Het Nieuwe Institute, Rotterdam. Her recent books include a survey of the work of the British female street photographer Shirley Baker (Mack, 2019), and Pools, an exploration of swimming in photography, (Rizzoli, 2020).

Portrait of Lou Stoppard
© Nik Hartley

Collections

Curatorial research residency – Lou Stoppard at the MEP

The MEP collections span the history of international photography from the 1950s to the present. With 24,000 photographic works, 110 artists’ videos, 800 documentary and experimental films and 36,000 books and periodicals, together they reflect the full range of artistic approaches to the photographic medium, from reportage and fashion work, to contemporary practices.

Curatorial research residency – Lou Stoppard at the MEP