The Use of Photography

First published in France in 2005, The Use of Photography recounts a passionate love affair between Ernaux and the journalist and author Marc Marie, after the two met in January 2003. The affair took place in different locations and Ernaux describes how, shortly after it began, she found herself entranced each morning by the sight of clothes strewn about, chairs out of place and the remains of their last meal of the evening still on the table - and how painful it felt to put things back in order afterward. She went and got her camera, and began to take photographs of the scenes of disarray. When she told Marc Marie what she had done, he said he had felt the same desire.