Sylvain Granjon
Les Zidiomatiks

  • France
  • fr
  • en
  • 26'
Sylvain Granjon | Les Zidiomatiks
Trailer Try 7 days free

Synopsis

With Les Zidiomatiks, Sylvain Granjon explores the passage from language to image, taking French idioms as his starting point. “To drag one’s feet,” “to bad-mouth someone behind their back,” or “to grab a bite on the go” thus become the foundations of photographic compositions in which literal meaning unsettles figurative usage. 

The film follows the artist at work, from preparing the shoot through analogue printing, cutting, staging, and hand-colouring. This process extends his experience of burlesque performance. The artist’s body becomes a sculptural material, while the photographic studio takes on the form of a miniature stage. 

In Granjon’s work, humour emerges from the gap between a familiar expression and its visual translation. By giving these expressions a concrete existence, the artist reveals their strangeness, their occasional violence, and also their inventive power.

What you will find in this film

The literal translation of French idioms into photographic images • A handcrafted process involving shooting, printing, cutting, and hand-colouring • A burlesque universe in which the body becomes a sculptural material • The movement from language to image, between humour and strangeness • An artist at work, in a studio conceived as a miniature stage.

Keywords

The Artist at Work Experimental & Alternative Photography Photographic Film Portrait & Aesthetics Creative & Exhibition Photography
Instead of being on stage, I’m on the walls.
I’m always happy to see a photograph appear.

Documentaries about photography, and about the people who make it. 
You can try it free for 7 days.

What you’ll find

Portraits of photographers, names everyone knows and others you’ll discover here. Films about street photography, war, fashion or portraiture, about printing and historical processes. About the trades of photography too. And then suggestions for going further, with Focuses, articles, interviews, bibliographies.

A small independent team

Documentaries about photography were rarely shown on television, and hardly at all on streaming platforms. We created The Darkroom Rumour to give them a place of their own. We are a small team, and we choose every film ourselves, with no school to defend.

Inspire your photography

In these films, you see photographers at work, in the field as well as in the darkroom. If you take pictures, you’ll often come away with an idea to try. If you simply like looking at images, you may start to see them differently.

How it works 

You can watch the films online, anywhere in the world, on a computer, tablet or phone, and on TV by mirroring your phone’s or computer’s screen. Every film is available in French and English, with no ads. New releases come out on Saturday or Sunday. The trial lasts 7 days, and if you stop before day 8, you pay nothing.

The Darkroom Rumour on a TV, a computer, a tablet and a phone
Start your free trial

Further exploration

Selected bibliography

• Sylvain Granjon, Les zidiomatiks, Éditions de l'Œil, 2017 (in French). Publisher · Libraries

• Sylvain Granjon, Superstars, A. Beaulet, 2025. Libraries

• Geoffrey Batchen, Each Wild Idea: Writing, Photography, History, MIT Press, 2001. Libraries

• Clément Chéroux, Since 1839...: Eleven Essays on Photography, MIT Press, 2024. Publisher · Libraries

• Charlotte Cotton, The Photograph as Contemporary Art, Thames & Hudson, 2021. Publisher · Libraries

• Susan Bright, Art Photography Now, Thames & Hudson, 2005. Publisher · Libraries

Online

• Grand Illusions: Staged Photography from the Met Collection, Aperture, 2015.

• Grand Illusions: Staged Photography from the Met Collection, exhibition, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2015.

• Photomontage and Representation, journal issue, Les Cahiers de la recherche architecturale, urbaine et paysagère, 2022.

• Photomontage Practices. Introduction, Anat Falbel, Frédéric Pousin and Andrea Urlberger, Les Cahiers de la recherche architecturale, urbaine et paysagère, 2023.

• Notes on Photomontage, Grete Stern, Les Cahiers de la recherche architecturale, urbaine et paysagère, 2023.

Instagram