Sous l’objectif de · Under the lens of : CADINOT
Published in 2023 by Hors Champ in a limited edition of 200 copies, this photobook brings together a curated selection of images from the archive of Jean-Daniel Cadinot (1940–2004), one of the most significant figures in French erotic photography of the late twentieth century. Over a career spanning three decades, Cadinot developed a visual language grounded in the classical tradition of figure studies — precise in its use of light, direct in its composition, and consistent in its treatment of the male body as a legitimate subject of photographic inquiry.
Cadinot’s work is inseparable from its historical moment: the cultural liberalisation that followed May 1968 in France, the emergence of openly gay publishing, and a wider reassessment of what representation could mean in photography. His Paris studio, founded in the 1970s, became a reference point in European erotic and documentary photography, producing a body of work that engaged — with technical rigor — questions of beauty, desire, and masculine identity. The title “Sous l’objectif de · Under the lens of” positions this volume explicitly as an act of witness: these are photographs made with intent, by a practitioner who understood the camera as both instrument and argument.
This softcover edition, measuring 25 × 20.2 × 2 cm, serves as a collector’s document and a point of entry into Cadinot’s visual legacy. Available through Imago Dei, it forms part of the gallery’s commitment to preserving and presenting works at the intersection of photography, publishing history, and the study of the body.

























