Françoise
Huguier

Françoise Huguier

biography


French photographer, member of Agence VU’, Françoise Huguier works and lives mainly in Paris.

In parallel to the worlds of politics, culture, and fashion, which she has been documenting since 1976, it is the world as a territory of encounters that Françoise Huguier began to explore at the end of the 1980s. Whether in Europe, Africa or Asia, she gazes with the same singular and graphic eye that never lacks humour. From fashion photography to reportage, from snapshots to staging, Françoise Huguier’s photography documents and reveals the diversity of the world, its territories and societies.

In 1989, she travels the African continent in the footsteps of Michel Leiris. This inaugural journey inspires her first book “Sur les traces de l’Afrique fantôme” (Actes Sud, 1990) – awarded by the Villa Médicis hors les murs. Thanks to the strong links forged during this first trip, Françoise Huguier sets up the first Bamako Biennial of Photography (Mali) in 1994 that aims to promote African contemporary photography internationally. She initiates a photographic work on the intimacy of women in Burkina Faso and Mali (“Secrètes“, Actes Sud, 1996).

In 1993, she travels through Russian territory with “En route pour Behring” (ed Maeght): a diary of her solitary trip to Siberia, awarded by the Villa Médicis hors les murs and a Word Press Photo. Continuing her research on intimacy, social life and the traces of history, she spends two months a year, between 2000 and 2007, in the communal apartments of Saint Petersburg, revealing the survivals of the Soviet world as much as the meanders inherent in living together (“Kommunalki“, ed. Actes Sud, 2008 and “Kommunalka“, feature documentary, 2008).

In the 2000s, South-East Asia becomes one of her favorite destinations. Fifty years after leaving Cambodia, she returns in 2004 to the footstep of her childhood as a prisoner of the Viet Minh (“J’avais huit ans“, Actes Sud, 2005). During an artist’s residency in Singapore in 2009, she begins a journey to the heart of the middle classes in Southeast Asia; a work awarded in 2011 by the Prix de photographie de Académie des beaux-arts.

She continues her study from 2010 to 2012 with “Vertical/Horizontal, Interior/Exterior” (Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur), before extending it to the postmodern societies of Southeast Asia:  in 2014, the hijabistas in Indonesia and the KPOP movement in Malaysia, then the upheavals of Seoul society (“Virtual Seoul“, Actes Sud, 2016 as part of the France-Korea crossover years (2014-2015). A work that has been exhibited at the Museum of the History of Seoul (2016), at the Pavillon Carré Baudouin in Paris (2016) and at the Olympic Museum of Lausanne (2017).

In 2017, she exhibits for the Month of Photography, “Grand Paris. L’approche intimiste de Françoise Huguier”. A work produced in collaboration with the Society of the Grand Paris, for which she went for three years to meet the families living near the futures Gare Stations. That same year, she produced a project on the social housing in Deauville.

In 2020, Françoise Huguier is at the limelight at the Quai Branly Museum of Paris with “Les Curiosités du monde de Françoise Huguier”. An exhibit conceived as travel diary that presents a selection of unusual objects she has gleaned from all over the world. Objects that have been as much a source of inspiration for her images and which she shares in “La Curieuse”, a book published by Filigranes Editions (2020).

Awarded by numerous prestigious prizes, Françoise Huguier receives the insignia of “Officier des Arts et des Lettres” in 2012. Regularly exhibited in France and around the world, her work was the subject of a retrospective at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in 2014. In 2018, Reporters Without Borders devotes to her an album from its “100 photos for press freedom” collection. In parallel as her photographic career, she is also regularly asked to curate exhibitions and biennials (Photoquai, Mois de la photographie à Paris, Luang Prabang Biennial, etc.).

Series


Virtual Seoul, 2016

Serie | With “Virtual Seoul”, the photographer Françoise Huguier tries to resolve a long-time enigma that haunts her since she strides up the world, and in particular Asia: How has a city become in thirty years the spearhead of popular culture throughout Asia?

Learn how to die in South Korea, 2015

Serie | With 39 suicides committed every day, South Korea holds a sad record in the world. Seniors commit suicide four times more in South Korea than in the other OECD countries.

K-POP in Malaysia, 2014

Serie | K-POP, that is originally a Korean musical genre resulting from the fusion of Korean popular music and Anglo-Saxon pop, very quickly became a viral cultural phenomenon that conquered the younger generations of Southeast Asia.

Hijab in Indonesia, 2013

Serie | Before the 1980’s, only few women wore the veil in Indonesia. This Islamic fashion trend has really started towards the early 2000’s.

Nuns of Colombia, 2013

Serie | In 2012, Françoise Huguier once again meddled with what at first seemed none of her business: nuns in Bogota, Cali and Popoyan, the three main cities in Colombia.

Flowers of skin, 2013

Serie | From Japan to Singapore, passing by Thailand, Françoise Huguier went to meet a tattooed youth.

Kommounalki, 2007

Serie | As a provisional measure after the Revolution of 19717, the Kommounalkas (community flats), went through the whole 20th century and still concern 17 million of Russians.

I was eight years old, 2005

Serie | I had to wait for 50 years before going back in Cambodia. Fifty years that hit hardly this country, through a history of conflicts and suffering.

Sublimes, 1999

Serie | It is not insignificant that Françoise Huguier's first noticed and remarkable fashion photographs were published in the early 1980s in the daily newspaper, Liberation.

Secrets women, 1996

Serie | During her frequent travels through Burkina Faso and Mali, Françoise Huguier took the time of encounter: she spoke to people, went into houses, women's rooms, and listened.

Durban, South Africa, 1996

Serie | The Inkata was based in this huge port set in on the shore of Indian Ocean, in South Africa, where White, Bantous et Indians coexist.

In march for Behring, 1993

Serie | Françoise Huguier brings back to us from the Far North her photographs and her travel notes from Siberia.

Sur les traces de l’Afrique fantôme, 1990

Serie | Between May 1988 and January 1990, the photographer François Huguier went through the Dakar-Djibouti Mission which crossed Africa from West to East from May 1931 to February 1933.

Virtual Seoul, 2016

Serie | With “Virtual Seoul”, the photographer Françoise Huguier tries to resolve a long-time enigma that haunts her since she strides up the world, and in particular Asia: How has a city become in thirty years the spearhead of popular culture throughout Asia?

Learn how to die in South Korea, 2015

Serie | With 39 suicides committed every day, South Korea holds a sad record in the world. Seniors commit suicide four times more in South Korea than in the other OECD countries.

K-POP in Malaysia, 2014

Serie | K-POP, that is originally a Korean musical genre resulting from the fusion of Korean popular music and Anglo-Saxon pop, very quickly became a viral cultural phenomenon that conquered the younger generations of Southeast Asia.

Hijab in Indonesia, 2013

Serie | Before the 1980’s, only few women wore the veil in Indonesia. This Islamic fashion trend has really started towards the early 2000’s.

Nuns of Colombia, 2013

Serie | In 2012, Françoise Huguier once again meddled with what at first seemed none of her business: nuns in Bogota, Cali and Popoyan, the three main cities in Colombia.

Flowers of skin, 2013

Serie | From Japan to Singapore, passing by Thailand, Françoise Huguier went to meet a tattooed youth.

Kommounalki, 2007

Serie | As a provisional measure after the Revolution of 19717, the Kommounalkas (community flats), went through the whole 20th century and still concern 17 million of Russians.

I was eight years old, 2005

Serie | I had to wait for 50 years before going back in Cambodia. Fifty years that hit hardly this country, through a history of conflicts and suffering.

Sublimes, 1999

Serie | It is not insignificant that Françoise Huguier's first noticed and remarkable fashion photographs were published in the early 1980s in the daily newspaper, Liberation.

Secrets women, 1996

Serie | During her frequent travels through Burkina Faso and Mali, Françoise Huguier took the time of encounter: she spoke to people, went into houses, women's rooms, and listened.

Durban, South Africa, 1996

Serie | The Inkata was based in this huge port set in on the shore of Indian Ocean, in South Africa, where White, Bantous et Indians coexist.

In march for Behring, 1993

Serie | Françoise Huguier brings back to us from the Far North her photographs and her travel notes from Siberia.

Sur les traces de l’Afrique fantôme, 1990

Serie | Between May 1988 and January 1990, the photographer François Huguier went through the Dakar-Djibouti Mission which crossed Africa from West to East from May 1931 to February 1933.

Virtual Seoul, 2016

Serie | With “Virtual Seoul”, the photographer Françoise Huguier tries to resolve a long-time enigma that haunts her since she strides up the world, and in particular Asia: How has a city become in thirty years the spearhead of popular culture throughout Asia?

Learn how to die in South Korea, 2015

Serie | With 39 suicides committed every day, South Korea holds a sad record in the world. Seniors commit suicide four times more in South Korea than in the other OECD countries.

K-POP in Malaysia, 2014

Serie | K-POP, that is originally a Korean musical genre resulting from the fusion of Korean popular music and Anglo-Saxon pop, very quickly became a viral cultural phenomenon that conquered the younger generations of Southeast Asia.

Hijab in Indonesia, 2013

Serie | Before the 1980’s, only few women wore the veil in Indonesia. This Islamic fashion trend has really started towards the early 2000’s.

Nuns of Colombia, 2013

Serie | In 2012, Françoise Huguier once again meddled with what at first seemed none of her business: nuns in Bogota, Cali and Popoyan, the three main cities in Colombia.

Flowers of skin, 2013

Serie | From Japan to Singapore, passing by Thailand, Françoise Huguier went to meet a tattooed youth.

Kommounalki, 2007

Serie | As a provisional measure after the Revolution of 19717, the Kommounalkas (community flats), went through the whole 20th century and still concern 17 million of Russians.

I was eight years old, 2005

Serie | I had to wait for 50 years before going back in Cambodia. Fifty years that hit hardly this country, through a history of conflicts and suffering.

Sublimes, 1999

Serie | It is not insignificant that Françoise Huguier's first noticed and remarkable fashion photographs were published in the early 1980s in the daily newspaper, Liberation.

Secrets women, 1996

Serie | During her frequent travels through Burkina Faso and Mali, Françoise Huguier took the time of encounter: she spoke to people, went into houses, women's rooms, and listened.

Durban, South Africa, 1996

Serie | The Inkata was based in this huge port set in on the shore of Indian Ocean, in South Africa, where White, Bantous et Indians coexist.

In march for Behring, 1993

Serie | Françoise Huguier brings back to us from the Far North her photographs and her travel notes from Siberia.

Sur les traces de l’Afrique fantôme, 1990

Serie | Between May 1988 and January 1990, the photographer François Huguier went through the Dakar-Djibouti Mission which crossed Africa from West to East from May 1931 to February 1933.

video


Kommunalka (extrait), 2008

Interviews


À voix nue, series “Françoise Huguier, freedom in the lens”
Episode 5/5: Photography and cinema

France Culture

A series of interviews proposed by Caroline Broué, 2022

Cinema has always accompanied the photographer who is an accomplished cinephile. She conceives her work as a staging, with light and film scenes always in mind. But for Françoise Huguier, the attraction also comes from the objects carefully arranged in her studio.

Director: Guillaume Baldy. Sound recording : Andreas Jaffre. Program manager: Daphné Abgrall. Coordination: Florian Delorme.

À voix nue, series “Françoise Huguier, freedom in the lens”
Episode 4/5: Photography of intimacy

France Culture

A series of interviews proposed by Caroline Broué, 2022

In this fourth episode, Françoise Huguier details some of the recurring themes of her work: habitat, women, bodies.

Director: Guillaume Baldy. Sound recording : Andreas Jaffre. Program manager: Daphné Abgrall. Coordination: Florian Delorme.

À voix nue, series “Françoise Huguier, freedom in the lens”
Episode 3/5: The Duchess of Bamako

France Culture

A series of interviews proposed by Caroline Broué, 2022

Africa is Françoise Huguier’s other favorite continent, especially Mali, where she has made many trips and founded the Bamako Photography Meetings, to the point of being considered today as the country’s ambassador.

Director: Guillaume Baldy. Sound recording : Andreas Jaffre. Program manager: Daphné Abgrall. Coordination: Florian Delorme.

À voix nue, series “Françoise Huguier, freedom in the lens”
Episode 2/5: The learning of freedom

France Culture

A series of interviews proposed by Caroline Broué, 2022

Françoise Huguier and her family returned to France in 1953. She continued her studies there, first in a religious boarding school, then discovered cinema and took up photography. Japan was the real trigger for her. Then came the Libé years and the fashion of the 80s.

Director: Guillaume Baldy. Sound recording : Andreas Jaffre. Program manager : Daphné Abgrall. Coordination: Florian Delorme.

À voix nue, series “Françoise Huguier, freedom in the lens”
Episode 1/5: In captivity at eight years old

France Culture

A series of interviews proposed by Caroline Broué, 2022

Françoise Huguier was born in 1942 and grew up in Cambodia, in what was still French Indochina. At the age of eight, she was kidnapped with her brother by independence movements. She remained a hostage for nine months.

Director: Guillaume Baldy. Sound recording : Andreas Jaffre. Program manager: Daphné Abgrall. Coordination: Florian Delorme.

Dans les oreilles de …
Radio Nova

September 2022 – By Isadora Dartial

Interview with Françoise Huguier who, after being honored at Visa pour l’Image, exhibits at the Salon de la Photo.

Le Mag de la Matinale (Sonia Devillers)
France Inter

Monday September 5, 2022

Françoise Huguier, 50 years of photography: “I am attracted by the light of interiors”.

A pioneer: a woman in a man’s profession! She began by photographing fashion. Then she crossed Africa from Dakar to Djibouti and traveled to the far reaches of Siberia.
In Perpignan, the Visa pour l’image festival honors the career of photographer Françoise Huguier. Her work will be on display until September 11.

La Grande Table d’été
France Culture

July 2022

Omar Victor Diop and Françoise Huguier: Africa far from clichés

Meeting with the photographers Françoise Huguier and Omar Victor Diop who have in common Africa, a taste for others and a serious sense of the frame between the art of the portrait and the art of withdrawal.

La boîte noire
Canal +

2020

Françoise Huguier came with some of her “curiosités” brought from all over the world.
Françoise Huguier’s curiosities are presented in the frame of her new exhibit at the Quai Branly Museum from June 30th to October 11th 2020.

Afrique Culture
TV5 Monde

Interview by Pascal Achard, 2020

Trinkets, masks, statues, toys, kitsch or sacred’s objects, a part of the curiosities of Françoise Huguier’s world are exposed at the Quai Branly museum. The photographer opens to us the door of her house in the Paris suburb to present us her fantastic collection.

L’invité culture
France Culture

Interview by Chloë Cambreling, 2020

The photographer Françoise Huguier signs a new work through the exhibit “Les curiosités du monde de Françoise Huguier” at the Quai Branly Museum, from June 30th to October 11th 2020.

La grande table
France Culture

Interview by Olivia Gesbert, 2018

The photographer Françoise Huguier has been travelling the world for forty years, giving the feeling that she has never been around. She was our guest alongside Pierre Haski, the president of RSF and former correspondent for “Libération” in Beijing.

Grand Palais
Fisheye

Interview by Eric Karsenty, 2018

Meeting with the photographer Françoise Huguier who tells us about her career, her inspirations and the place of women in photography today.

L’invité
TV5 Monde

Interview by Patrick Simonin, 2018

Françoise Huguier signs “100 photos for press freedom”, the new album of Reporters sans Frontières (RSF).

Autour de Françoise Huguier
Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine

Interview by Maire-Hélène Contal, 2018

Encounter with Françoise Huguier around her work on South Korea. Screening-debate in presence of the artist, Valerie Gelezau, geographer and lecturer at the EHESS and specialist of Korea, and Herve Le Goff, journalist and photography critic.

Regardez voir
France Inter

Interview by Brigitte Patient, 2016

Photographer at the Agence VU’, Françoise Huguier crisscrossed the globe, from the cross of the Africa under 40°C to the Polar Siberia under minus 40°C. From fashion to report, from instant photography to staging, she keeps the same gaze for a marked graphism that is never lack of humor. She, who has been one of the creators of the Biennale of Photography in Bamako, presents us “Regard sur la photographie africaine” which she assumes the curation at the Blachère Foundation.

Tout un monde
France Inter

Interview by Marie-Hélène Fraïssé, 2016

Rediscovering in Seoul in 2014, where she had stayed and worked for a long time in 1982, Françoise Huguier observes, stunned, a world transformed by technologies and mass consumerism… “Virtual Seoul”, is the latest of his photographic adventures.

Dans l’oeil de Françoise Huguier
Actuelles

Interview by Yara Jamalielo, 2014

Encounter with the photographer Françoise Huguier who crisscross the globe for nearly 40 years. From Mali to Behring Strait, she considers that women’s rights are regressing.

Exhibitions


HDB à Singapour

11th edition of the photographic festival l’Œil Urbain, Corbeil-Essonne, France

From 31 March 2023 to 20 May 2023

Sublimes

Festival Nicéphore, 17e biennale internationale de photographie

From 5 to 26 October 2024

“Toute” en retrait

Visa pour l’image : International Festival of Photojournalism, Perpignan, France

From August 27 to September 11, 2022

L’Afrique Secrète

Galerie Art-Z, 75011 Paris

From March 24 to April 24, 2022

Exposition Françoise Huguier

Le Parvis Espace Culturel, Pau (FRANCE)

From January 26 to March 30, 2019

Sublimes

Ambassade de France, Minsk (BELARUS)

From June 11 to July 10, 2019

BOOKS


1992

Editions Odyssée - 2023

The curious one

Filigranes Editions - 2020

Virtual Seoul

Actes Sud Beaux-Arts - 2016

Nuns

Filigranes Éditions - 2013

1992

Editions Odyssée - 2023

The curious one

Filigranes Editions - 2020

Virtual Seoul

Actes Sud Beaux-Arts - 2016

Nuns

Filigranes Éditions - 2013

1992

Editions Odyssée - 2023

The curious one

Filigranes Editions - 2020

Virtual Seoul

Actes Sud Beaux-Arts - 2016

Nuns

Filigranes Éditions - 2013

Awards


Françoise Huguier elected to the Académie des beaux-arts

During the plenary session on Wednesday 25 January 2023, the Académie des Beaux-Arts elected Françoise Huguier to chair V of the photography section..

2023

Bellême Photographs of the Year Trophy of Honor

For his entire photographic career

2017

Winner of the Albert Kahn International Planet Prize

For her humanist qualities and for her entire career

2016

Winner of the Photography Prize of the Academy “des Beaux Arts”

For her project « Vertical / Horizontal, Intérieur / Extérieur. Singapour – Kuala Lumpur – Bangkok « Middle classes » en Asie du Sud-Est à l’aube du XXIe siècle ».

2011

Winner of the Anna Politkovskaïa Award

For her movie “Kommunalka ”
31st edition of the International Women’s Film Festival of Creteil

2008

Winner of the World Press Photo

For her work “En route pour Behring”

1993

Winner of the Villa Medicis “Hors les Murs” Prize

For her work “En route pour Behring”

1993

Winner of the Villa Medicis “Hors les Murs” Prize

Pour sa série « Sur les traces de l’Afrique fantôme »

1990

Winner of the Prize “Rencontres Internationales de la photographie d’Arles”

1987

Winner of the Kodak Prize for Photographic Criticism

1986