Jean-François Lepage (born 22 February 1960), is a French photographer and painter. He lives and works in Paris.

Life and work

Lepage was born in Paris, France, in 1960. He was introduced to photography by his uncle who was art director at '' Cosmopolitan'' magazine. He then discovered the work of the street photographers Henri Cartier Bresson, William Eugene Smith and

Robert Frank Robert Frank (November 9, 1924 – September 9, 2019) was a Swiss photographer and documentary filmmaker, who became an American binational. His most notable work, the 1958 book titled ''The Americans'', earned Frank comparisons to a modern-da ...

as well as the fashion photographers Erwin Blumenfeld,

Helmut Newton Helmut Newton (born Helmut Neustädter; 31 October 192023 January 2004) was a German-Australian photographer. The ''New York Times'' described him as a "prolific, widely imitated fashion photographer whose provocative, erotically charged black-a ...

and

Guy Bourdin Guy Bourdin (2 December 1928 – 29 March 1991), was a French artist and fashion photographer known for his provocative images. From 1955, Bourdin worked mostly with ''Vogue'' as well as other publications including '' Harper's Bazaar''. He shot ...

. In 1977, Lepage left school before graduating and worked at the post office. Two years later, after a one-year trip to the United States and Mexico, Lepage joined the photographer's assistant team of the ''

Marie Claire ''Marie Claire'' is a French international monthly magazine first published in France in 1937, followed by the United Kingdom in 1941. Since then various editions are published in many countries and languages. The feature editions focus on wo ...

'' magazine studio in Paris. He started his photographic career in 1980 and made his first exhibition of portraits of the French actress isabelle Adjani in 1983. His early photographs featured in magazines including ''Depeche Mode'', ''Jill Magazine'', Vogue UK and

Condé Nast Publications Condé is a French place name and personal name. It is ultimately derived from a Celtic word, "Condate", meaning "confluence" (of two rivers) - from which was derived the Romanised form "Condatum", in use during the Roman period, and thence to t ...

in Italy. After the birth of his son Vincent, Lepage began to devote himself to drawing and painting in 1987. During his self-imposed exile from editorial photography, Lepage has shot the album cover of the German singer Nina Hagen in 1989 ('' Nina Hagen'') as well as campaigns for Laura Urbinati in 1988, Jil Sander in 1990 and Masaki Matsushima in 1998. Lepage returned with a new approach in 2001 – moving outside the studio to create new series of stories for magazines. In this work he intentionally showed the source used to light his subjects and to compose and balance his flash light with the Sun, to create a new perspective. Over the past three decades, his photographs were published in international magazines such as '' Another Man Magazine'', ''Double'', '' Exit'', ''Italian Amica'', '' Purple'' and '' Vogue'' among many others. His work at the intersection of painting, cinema and contemporary photography, represents a very different way of seeing the world of fashion. His approach is similar to that of the plastic arts and illustrates a significant change in fashion photography. In 2013, Lepage worked with curator Raphaëlle Stopin to present the exhibition 'Memories from the Future' during the 28th International Hyères Festival of Fashion and Photography. In 2014, Jean-François Lepage had begun to pull away from fashion. MOONLIGHT ZOO, his first monograph was published in April 2015 by Prestel Publishing while at the same time his latest series entitled ''Recycle (prelude)'' ''–'' the first opus of his most recent photographic work ''–'' was exhibited in Paris, Amsterdam and London.

Style

Lepage is a great admirer of the painters

Albrecht Dürer Albrecht Dürer (; ; hu, Ajtósi Adalbert; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer (without an umlaut) or Due ...

Diego Velázquez Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (baptized June 6, 1599August 6, 1660) was a Spanish painter, the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV of Spain and Portugal, and of the Spanish Golden Age. He was an individualistic artist of th ...

, Kandinsky,

Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

and

Braque Georges Braque ( , ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculpture, sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his all ...

, and his photographs reflect his love for painting. Working with large format film cameras, Lepage's photography is produced on a knife's edge. His hands-on in the gelatine, like a paintbrush in oil and pigments, the photographer reconstructs the body's anatomy, cutting the negative to build a new, multiple image. From these cut, multiplied, recomposed faces and bodies, a complex identity suddenly rises to the surface. The character's individuality emerges and creates an oscillatory wave that disturbs the peaceful surface of the image, causing it to waver between seduction and repulsion, sophistication and brutality. These images, with their stripped-back composition, are inhabited by strangely motionless beings, suspended in their own time and space; while lost in their dreams and thoughts, they meander through a land where the imaginary world of the photographer, the character and viewer's imagination project and come together.

Selected solo exhibitions

*1983 '' Isabelle Adjani'' (Portraits of the actress) – Canon Gallery , Paris, France *1988 ''Jean-François Lepage –'' French Cultural Center ,

Varsovie Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officially ...

, Poland *1988 ''Jean-François Lepage –'' Galerie Le Comptoir de la Photographie , Paris, France *1992 ''Jean-François Lepage –'' White Art Gallery , Tokyo, Japan *1993 ''Jean-François Lepage –'' International Fashion Festival of Photography , Monte-Carlo, Monaco *1994 ''Dieu'' – Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle – permanent exhibition ( Reverse glass painting) , Paris, France *1994 ''Photographie & Peinture –'' Galerie Camera Obscura , Paris, France *1998 ''Photographie 1984–1998 –'' Galerie 213 , Paris, France *2011 ''MoonLight'' – Bacc – Art Cultural Center , Bangkok, Thailand *2013 ''Memories from the Future –'' 28th International Festival of Fashion Design and Contemporary Photography of Hyères , Hyères, France *2014 ''Inside the Mirror'' – Galerie Madé , Paris, France *2015 ''Recycle (Prelude)'' – Galerie Madé , Paris, France *2015 ''Recycle (Prelude)'' – The Ravestijn Gallery , Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Books

* ''Archeology of elegance: 1980–2000, 20 years of fashion photography'' by Marion de Beaupré, Ulf Poschardt, Stéphane Baurnet – 2002, * ''Jean-François Lepage'': Catalogue Exposition, Paris, 20 October – 15 November 1998, Galerie 213 – by Marion de Beaupré, Christian Caujolle – 1998, * ''Modernes: 20 years of contemporary fashion, ANDAM 1989–2009'' by Florence Müller and Jean-François Lepage – 2009, * ''The Art of Fashion Photography'' by Patrick Remy – 2013, * ''Jean-François lepage – MOONLIGHT ZOO'' by Phil Bicker and Raphaëlle Stopin – 2015,

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lepage, Jean-Francois 1960 births Living people French photographers Fashion photographers Portrait photographers Artists from Paris French contemporary artists