I was born in 1993 of French and Swiss parents and grew up in California Before moving to Europe.
I am currently based in Switzerland where I graduated in 2017 With the honors from the prestigious university of art and design school "Ecal" / École cantonale d'art de Lausanne, from a bachelor in visual communication specializing photography.
For the past couple of years I have been developing a versatile artistic practice, producing photography books, short films, diverse commissioned works and documentary essays, while the themes at the core of my work remain unchanged. I've been focusing more on concepts and creative direction since 2023 enjoying focusing on the story line, scenography, casting and visual stregnt of projects of mine or my clients.
As an artist, my creative practice revolves around the role that memory plays in our daily lives and the place that we ascribe to it. Telling stories through the use of personal archives and collections of all kind is central to how I develop my projects and bring them to their final form.
I began using photography as a medium during my early teenage years, at the time it seemed to me to be the best way to show and share the world around me and the stories I wanted to tell. My childhood in California, and this shift in geography has kept influencing me throughout my life.
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Education:
*I was born in Paris, France on July 24th 1993 from French and Swiss parents
*I then grew up in San Francisco, California from 1993 until 2000
*From 2000 until 2010 I attended the private Rudolf Steiner school near Paris as well as two private catholic schools from which I then received my french graduation ‘Baccalauréat’ specializing in litterature and art with a mention.
*In 2011 I attended a 1 year art program at the ‘Atelier Hourdé’ in Paris to prepare entries into renowed european art universities.
*2012-2017: I studied at Ecal University/Ecole Cantonale d’art de Lausanne with a bachelor in ‘Visual Communication’ specializing in photography, from which I graduated with the honors and ‘Excellence’ mention given by the faculty teachers and an international jury including Christophe Wiesner/the artistic director of Paris Photo Fair as well as the Arles photography festival, along with the director of Mörel Books, the famous publisher in London. Ecal University awarded me the ‘Profot Prize’ of photography equipment for the occasion.
Ecal is an internationally known university, it is one of Europe’s top 5 best schools in the arts and design fields and in the world’s top 10.
Over my 5 years of studies I conducted numerous artistic collaborations including
projects with BMW and Pierre Hardy as well as works with Erik Kessels, RVB Books,
Anoush Abrar, Mathieu Gafsou, Walter Pfeiffer, Harry Peccinotti, Laurence Bonvin, Philippe Jarrigeon, Novembre Global magazine, Natasha Lesueur, Augustin Rebetez, and many more.
Furthermore, during my studies I spent a semester abroad in NYC assisting the documentary photographer and visual artist: Christian Patterson which was very enriching and allowed me to meet other NYC based artists that inspire me since.
Resume, Exhibitions and Awards
Alongside from what is presented and listed below, the founding of my art studio ‘Studio Papillon’ in 2020 in Lausanne, has been my main work field. This creative hub allows me and now 13 other artists to explore our diverse talents and expand, mixing multiple art fields and ways of communication.
The ‘Studio Papillon’ is well known in Switzerland for it’s palette of creative fields from fashion, art, music, to inovative beauty aesthetics, workshops and events.
Weather to come seek quality services from the creatives or seeking art directing packages this space is curated by myself and since 2022 with my two partners. This project has allowed me to combine my primary talents in art directing, writting and image making as well as operating a team, proving long lasting trust from clients, jobs, and co-workers while always inovating and delivering quality content.
It has for me been the first steps into bigger projects yet to come which I seek to pursue in the United States and more precisly in Los Angeles with a team of creatives I aspire to and have been following from a far for the past years.
2024
*Opening of my small gallery ‘La Vitrine’, a quartely art space I curate.
Located at the Avenue de la Gare 43b in Lausanne, this small gallery was a way for me to transform a space usually meant for commercial informations as an art space. A story-telling window display for the people that walk to and from the train station each day.
*Some images of mine were exposed at Unort, an art gallery in Zürich from June to July as a part of the exhibition ‘Garden of Dreams’.
*3rd wine label collaboration with Matthias Orsett for his swiss wines, also famous and sold in Spain, France, England, Grece and in New Yor City.
*Achievment of the production and screenplay of 6 short stories «The Creature of My Dreams» for the 4 years of my creative studio. Mixing multiple art forms in a festive direction encompassing scenography, styling, casting, light design, sound and much more. Each character of the videos had their own stories and aesthetics therefore being a great way to show my panel of creative skills to direct in a unique form.
All of which gave me the impulse to pursue my career ambitions in Los Angeles where entertainment is key, suiting my passion and hardwork for this field.
2023
‘Au-delà des Fonds’, La Villa Moyard, Morges, Switzerland.
An exhibition with Lola Sacier and Valérie Margot both painters and scenography crafetrs for their ‘Backdrop Associates’ project. Their work evolves around and between scenography, painting as well as interior design.
For this exhibition their large scale hand made paintings/backdrops echoed with portraits of influent swiss artists and interior designs I created.
As for the gallery space of the Villa Moyard- until then, former sewing and merchandise storage workshops for the Ateliers Moyard (which are still located in the adjacent building), this space was reconfigured 12 years ago, into a space for creation and exhibition by Mathieu Winkler. He passionately organizes exhibitions of design, photography and contemporary art there, adding a few notes of experimental music.
2020
Foundation of the ‘Studio Papillon’, a creative art studio based in Lausanne mixing art and fashion which I’ve founded and now co-own with two other creatives that I had at the time invited to the space space early stage.
Over the past 4 years this project grew from 4 to 13 creatives, from a small workshop to a 200 square meter open space in the center of the city.
This studio provides an original and safe work environment and fun curated events earning over time it’s positive and qualitative reputation throughout the country.
2020
Pro Helvetia photography grant ‘Prix de la relève photographique’.
2019
La Fabrique des Illusions - Groupe show at the museum of modern art of Beirut, the Sursock Museum in Lebanon, which was then showed in the following months at the MUCEM, the museum of civilizations of Europe and the mediterranean in Marseille, France. The show confronted Fouad Debbas’ ancient oriental photography collections echoing with a selection of contemporary artist works.
That same year a work of mine was published in «Body», a book by Nathalie Herschdorfer, the director of the museum of modern art of Lausanne, published by Thames & Hudson editions. The book includes many of todays photographers from Wolfgang Tillmans to Nobuyoshi Araki passing through Juergen Teller and many more, the book is a 400 page study of the human form.
2018
Out of Sight - Square gallery, Geneva, Switzerland
Invited by « Intercourse of the New Age » based in Paris to do a work in the context of « La Nuit des Bains » art events which happen twice a year through the city of Geneva in every gallery. For this occasion we were a small groupe of artists invited to create record covers.
Extravaganza - Vevey Images festival, Switzerland.
Award winner of the festival with the light prize (Broncolor), given by Christian
Marclay and accompanied by Simon Baker, director of MEP museum in paris, Luce
Lebart, historian and curator, Darius Himes, director of Christie’s photography
department, New York, Lars Boering, director of World Press Photo, Amsterdam.
The festival is one of the largest and longest-standing photography competitions in Europe, open to professional artists and photographers worldwide.
Live interview on «France Inter Radio» for Brigitte Patient’s culture and photography show for which I was the guest in the morning show.
Urgent Calls Only - project created for the summer zine ‘Club Vacances’ around summer memories collected and gathered from 15 people, between texts and images.
Los Angeles Underground Film Festival - USA
Earned the « honorable » mention for my first short film ‘Fault Zone’.
Art of the Treasure Hunt - Tuscany, Italy
Selected by Kasia Redzisz, curator of the Tate museum Liverpool to participate with 10 other contemporary artists in the 3rd edition of the festival organized by Luziah Hennessy. The exhibitionwas held from July to October in different wineries across Chianti. During this occasion, the colombian chef Juan Quintero created a dessert at the «Osteria Volpaia» in honor of one of my two projects that were shown for the 3rd edition of the festival. The « Angélique » dessert was inspired by my documentary work in pink prison cell rooms accros Switzerland.
Amongst others exhibited were Bob Wilson and Sylvie Fleury.
Logcinema Film Festival - Los Angeles, USA
Awarded the prize for «Best Photography» for my short film ‘Fault Zone’.
International and Independent film festival of Miami - USA
Pre selected for the annual festival in the category « best short film » for my work ‘Fault Zone’.
New York City short film festival - USA
Screening of ‘Fault Zone’ during the festival.
Circulation(s) festival - le 104, Paris, France
«Jury’s selection prize» and exhibition for my documentary work «Pink Cells» regarding specificities in Swiss prisons. Each year the festival presents a short selection of Europe’s top emerging young talents. Circulation(s)’s 8th edition welcomed more than 48.000 visitors.
2017
Accomplishment and release of ‘Fault Zone’, Switzerland
My first short film which was my diploma project.
Selected and presented by Etapes magazine in their 2017 diploma selections.
Pre-selected and nominated as an emerging young talent for the annual «Plat(f)orm» event organized by Fotomuseum Winterthur which gives the chance to artists to give a conference about their work and ambitions over a week-end.
A photography series of mine was published in Harper’s Bazaar Japan, from images created for the french fashion brand Pierre Hardy’s following fall collection.
‘What happens when you pull the trigger’ - Lausanne, Accomplishment of my memoire work, it also earned the mention of ‘Excellence’.
Collective exhibition for Paris Photo fair between Ecal and November Global magazine, Paris, France.
2016
Paris Photo fair - Walk with Pierre Hardy - Place du palais bourbon, France / & japan. My class and I created as a part of our studies a fashion work done for the famous footwear brand Pierre Hardy, supervised by Philippe Jarrigeon. The exhibition was held in one of the previous boutiques of the brand. We arranged it as a gallery for the occasion. The exhibition then continued in Tokyo, Japan.
Eros and Thanatos - Bodmer Foundation, Colligny, Switzerland
Exhibition and publication as part of a study for Take5 Editions directed by Céline
Fribourg, Geneva, including JR, Prune Nourry, Vik Muniz, Mat Collishaw, John Armleder, Sylvie Fleury and Anoush Abrar. It is now part of the Harvard books collection as well as the MOMA’s collection in New York.
A Landscape of Modernity - ELAC, Renens, Switzerland
Exhibition and publication for a project around architectural photographs commissioned by the municipality for its development on the outskirts of the city of Lausanne.
2014
The Embarassment Show - Renens,CH/ Paris,FR/ Düsseldorf,DE
Exhibition of my project created under the supervision of Erik Kessels as a part of a workshop during my studies.
Design fair - Milano, Italy
Exhibition of a photobooth that I helped to create with Sunil Valu (designer) and Jules Moskovtchenko (photographer), also exhibited at the Dubai design fair the following months. For this project we created a vertical screen of about 1 meter high that allows the person in front of the device to draw their portrait via sensors embedded in a horizontal bar that can be used at the desired speed thus creating distor