artist in residence
2026
The Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary
With a passion for storytelling and family history, Ed Alcock is investigating the life of his grandmother Mary, who was born in 1923 into a working-class family in the north-east of England. Sent as a child to Cowes on the Isle of Wight—a town twinned with Deauville—she grew up under the care of an elderly, cultured man, in an upper-middle-class environment far removed from her humble origins. The reasons for this placement remain unclear: family tragedy, a secret of birth, or social divide.
Following the discovery of a hidden chest in Mary’s old house, Ed Alcock traces the thread of a story marked by unspoken truths, displacement and the links between England and Normandy. From the Isle of Wight to Deauville, this project blends photography, family memory and documentary investigation to explore the themes of transmission, uprooting and the traces left by secrets across generations.
Ed Alcock, a Franco-British photographer born in 1974 in Norwich (United Kingdom), lives and works between France and the United Kingdom. His practice explores reality in an intimate vein, straddling the line between documentary and autofiction, with a keen focus on light, gesture and fragmentary narrative. He weaves connections between the individual, family history and social context—particularly that of the British working class—by examining the unspoken, legacies and generational rifts. His work is enriched by collage, text and drawing, opening up the image to multiple layers of interpretation. Winner of the 2025 Niépce Prize and a member of the MYOP agency, he has exhibited at the Rencontres d’Arles and the Jeu de Paume Tours, among others. His works are held in the collections of the BNF.