Remembering the Occupation: La Mort et les statues by Pierre Jahan and Jean Cocteau.

This paper analyses the relationship between photography, sculpture and language in La Mort et les statues, a book co-published by Pierre Jahan and Jean Cocteau in 1946. The book comprises Jahan's photographs of the destruction of bronze statues that had been requisitioned for scrap metal during the Second World War. While the imagery commemorates violence done to the landscape, the addition of Cocteau's commentaries transforms documentary realism into surreal effect. The book is discussed in the context of the wider artistic output of its authors. It is argued that Cocteau's participation in the project constituted an important public statement about his immediate political past, including his support of Arno Breker. When viewed in the light of other documentary photography of the Second World War, the book stands as a unique construction of cultural memory and a powerful personal statement by a photographer and a poet with contrasting artistic styles and motives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]