Chambre 207 (Room 207) is a photographic project in the vein of autofiction, based on the reconstruction of memories lost following a childhood trauma.

On August 5, 1983, while he was stopping for a night with his family on the way to vacation, Jean-Michel André's father was murdered with six other people in a hotel in Avignon. The case has never been fully solved, but the investigation nevertheless revealed a motive: an attempted hold-up carried out by "minor" criminals that degenerated into carnage. However, the circumstances of the massacre remained imprecise.

Aged 7 and present in a room adjoining his father's at the time of the events, the photographer, in shock, lost his memory. Forty years later, by revisiting and photographing the places he was able to — or could have — crossed with his father and by mixing in elements of investigation, press archives and family objects, he decided to compose a collection questioning memory, mourning and reparation.
How to make abstract notions tangible and share the intimate to touch on a form of universal? Jean-Michel André's approach is located against pathos and the spectacular and questions the limits of the image: what can be shown, how, why, for whom? The photographic medium is transformed into a restorative instrument, the work takes shape and becomes the sole driving force.

Winner of the 2024 Prix Nadar