French photographer Romain Ruiz revels in the Gallic strangeness of his homeland, and has been documenting it in his ongoing folk series, France Parallax.
One ongoing project within the series documents the female figures in popular French folk events. Ruiz has visited coronation galas, carnivals, parades, flower parades, agricultural fairs, religious festivals, funfairs, and patronal feasts—events exemplifying both local pride and gendered beauty standards.
Ruiz’ latest project examines the evolution of these traditions in the contemporary era, at a time when discourse around beauty standards is inescapable (see: looksmaxxing). As Ruiz says on the queens: “It is precisely because it still holds meaning that it deserves to be documented and questioned.” We rang up Ruiz to chat about his latest work.
VICE: Do these queen-centric folk events date back to medieval times, or are they more recent?
Romain Ruiz: It depends on the celebration; sometimes medieval, sometimes recent. But the Queen of Carnival dates back to ancient times. Back then, it was a way to turn power upside down for one night by electing a king or queen of carnival, and it was someone from the people, reversing the symbolism for one day and allowing them to have fun. Back then, the queen would be more fun and funny, but after World War II, when France was trying to reconstruct, there was huge political pressure to sell and market the French countryside, and the queen became more about beauty. Before then, it could have been like the girl with the most virtue, or the funniest girl. Sometimes it can be religious, and sometimes it was very carnivalesque. After World War II, it was more about Miss France and stuff like that. How you get elected depends, from one year to another and on the place.
How did you first start on this as a new offshoot in your France Parallax series?
The first time I wanted to plunge into this project was in Cherbourg. It was very cold, it was for a carnival, and I saw this queen. I felt like she was freezing. At the same time, it was beautiful, because she was parading with a fake cartoon torch because they were dressed for the Olympic Games. It was very fragile, she wasn’t feeling very well, but she was proud at the same time. There were some guys close to me speaking badly about her, you know, “Wah, look at her, she’s hot.” I’m looking at the scene with my specific Parisian photographer eyes. Close to me, there are some people seeing the situation very differently, and the queen is seeing the whole situation from her point of view, and the three of us have a completely different way of seeing the same situation. I was like, “OK, it might be the beginning of a new series.” When I checked my archives, I realized the queen was always there, every time.
Why are you so interested in the queens?
The figure of the queen is so interesting, politically speaking, like: Why are you queen? What does it mean for you to be queen? And also the fantasy parts, like the visual part, which for me is very beautiful, because they are on a throne on a beautiful floral float. And they are the ones who are closing or starting the parade, so they are the most beautiful ones to shoot.
So these events happen in the UK as well? I feel like I’ve totally missed them.
Yeah, for sure, I’m pretty sure it might happen too, because in Ireland you find this kind of stuff, and I think that’s not very far away, culturally speaking. And in Australia, in parts of the U.S., you have it. I’m pretty sure you have it in the UK too.
I can see it being big in America.
Yeah, like beauty pageants.
Because they have a culture of kind of beautifying children in contests.
Yeah, in France it’s forbidden. You don’t have Little Miss Sunshine kind of stuff in France.
So it’s illegal?
Yeah, it’s illegal. If you want to get elected in France, you have to be at least 16 years old.
Why do you guys have this tradition of bestowing queendom on young women?
When I’m trying to sit very deeply with my photography, I always see it as adult play, like embodying a specific role. For me, queen and king, it’s just referring to ancient times, where we needed to create a kind of upside-down version of the real world, for one day of carnival, drinking like crazy, making fun of the royalty.
Follow Romain Ruiz on Instagram @romainruiz_
Follow Nick Thompson on Instagram @niche_t_
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