Chloé Jafé, French visual artist and photographer, brings to a close this special invitation extended to three photographers – all former recipients of the Bourse du Talent – in celebration of PICTO’s 75th anniversary. For over a decade, the artist has developed a distinctive body of work that blends documentary and visual art practices, shaped by her own unique forms of narrative expression.
Chloé Jafé was awarded the Bourse du Talent in 2017 for her photographic exploration of Japanese Yakuza women – figures who, while operating in the shadows of the men they are devoted to, cultivate resilience, complex identities, and a discreet yet powerful influence within the organization.
Since then, the artist has continued her creative journey, often choosing to expand the limits of photography by layering it with painting, drawing, or writing. These added dimensions bring a rare depth to her images and the relationships they capture – like a multi-level conversation between the artist and her subjects. This very approach is what inspired us to invite Chloé Jafé for this carte blanche on the theme of the laboratory: a curious, inventive perspective capable of conveying the multiple sensitivities and forms of humanity that make up the day-to-day life at a place like PICTO.
The photographer visited the homes of team members – printers, retouchers, client managers, even the president – beginning with long conversations about their relationship to image-making, their connection to the lab, and how all of this weaves into their personal lives. Only then came the time for the portrait – a moment of real encounter where subject and photographer observe one another: one offering a piece of themselves within their home, the other capturing that presence through composition, light, and trust.
The entire series was created using photography and lighting equipment provided by MPB for the project – tools that, enhanced the sensitivity and nuance of each portrait. Finally, Chloé Jafé intervened on every face, every print, adding words drawn from those shared conversations.
These portraits reflect PICTO as it stands today, in 2025. To mark this 75-year milestone, the photographer also created a more playful series of group portraits – a kind of “remake” that echoes the enduring spirit of a shared family ethos. The result is luminous, and above all, deeply moving – offering a rare glimpse into that singular feeling one might experience at PICTO: a shared connection through photography, and, undoubtedly, a sense of community.
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In 2025, MPB, Europe’s top camera reseller, becomes the main partner of Bourse du Talent, a historic programme to help emerging talent that has been supported by PICTO for 25 years. To mark this occasion and the 75th anniversary of the PICTO laboratories, MPB and Picto Foundation have joined forces to offer three former winners of Bourse du Talent an artistic carte blanche : how to represent today’s historic photo laboratory?
The PICTO x MPB CARTE BLANCHE is a continuation of our ongoing desire to put photographers in touch with the photographic ecosystem and to encourage the essence of their profession, the production of images. The CARTE BLANCHE PICTO x MPB is based on this particular magic, inherent in the photographer’s life. The three selected laureates of the Bourse du Talent, Kamila K Stanley (2023), Grégoire Eloy (2004) and Chloé Jafé (2017), will be immersing themselves in the Ile-de-France sites of the PICTO laboratories to offer us their singular vision of an environment, know-how, men and women at the service of photographers and their projects.
A programme
made possible thanks to the support of our main partner
and our other partners
