The Only Face

Author: Hervé Guibert

Translator: Christine Pichini

Publisher: Magic Hour Press (2025)

This photobook by Hervé Guibert, The Only Face, is not a novel in the traditional sense but is nonetheless filled with characters, settings and mystery. It starts with bodies―their faces either eclipsed or out of frame―before unleashing a bravura sequence of portraits: friends, lovers, family and Guibert himself. As the book approaches its finale, his subjects are obscured and then disappear completely, leaving behind the objects they touched, until even those vanish, leaving only light. Most of the photographs in The Only Face were taken on Guibert’s European and American travels, but their settings are, with few exceptions, small private interiors. The effect is an inwardness that communicates Guibert’s deep affinity with his subjects.