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If an image is a product of its time, it reveals above all what a society has left unsaid, its fantasies and its phobias. This is even more true with regard to the colonial concept. In this respect the image enables us to reconstruct the psychological context in which the relationship to the Other is set, a context in which behaviour patterns are structured within the colonial framework, but also an underlying source of inspiration for colonial policies. The image allows us to measure, stage by stage, the evolution of the ideas and their influence on the actions of men. Thus we move away from fiction to face reality. The reality of colonisation. But between the real and the imagined, there is an ambiguity which leads to one being taken for the other. That is what is at stake in our perspective and our questioning of the matter : we must not assume that the images depict a reality. They do not and at the same time, we must not perceive colonisation as history completely disconnected from the symbolic space in which it takes its place. Furthermore, it is a matter of defining the context in which it evolved, grew stronger and established itself. This is why, from an exhaustive collection of 64 « official » posters and documents we have tried to trace the placing of the Other in the French colonial world/concept, from conquest to independence. The other colonial or native does not exist, but was born out of the colonial notion. That is what is at stake in our perspective. We must understand that beyond the reflected image there is a « certain » reality, doubtless more alive than the colonial reality of the colonies.