The curves of two bodies merge in the shadows, reduced to volumes and lines. The tight framing transforms light into a modeling tool, bringing the body closer to a sculptural form. This formal exploration finds an echo in the photographs of the Recumbent Figures of Saint-Denis, where Jahan works the reliefs of the funerary sculptures with a raking light that lends them an unexpected sensuality. In both series, the boundary between body and matter seems to dissolve, between carnal presence and sculptural immobility. This photograph belongs to Plain-Chant, a project created in collaboration with Jean Cocteau.
“Before each photo, I would read them the text I wanted to illustrate” (P. Jahan, Objectif). Like the mirrors in Jean Cocteau’s work, photography becomes for Jahan a gateway to another world, to the unconscious and to dreams. In 1947 he created "Plain-Chant," bridging his artistic universe with Cocteau's poetic one. In this series of nudes, Jahan illustrates and transcribes the theme of lovers' sleep imagined by the poet in 1923. Here, the act of love gives way to signs of love through tender gestures and chaste attitudes, marked by plays of light.