
Adrien
Adrien Selbert

biography

Photographer, filmmaker, multimedia editor, born in 1985, member of Agence VU’ since 2017, based in Paris (France)
Graduated from the Beaux-Arts de Nantes and the Arts Décoratifs de Paris, Adrien Selbert overcomes the conventional limits imposed by imagesto show the contemporary world, its youth and diversity, in a sensitive relationship to time and substance.
In 2005, at twenty years old, he discovers Bosnia – a country that “jumped in his face” and that he has been documenting ever since. In 2010, he directs with Aude Léa Rapin “Nino’s Place“: this 52-minute documentary, awarded Best Grand Reportage at the Geneva International Film Festival of Human Rights, deals with the tireless struggle of a mother to find the body of her dead son Nino, a radio journalist who disappeared during the first days of the capture of Srebrenica in 1995.
With “Srebrenica, nuit à nuit” (Srebrenica, Night to Night), he reveals, through photography, the specificity of young Bosnians’ lives who evolve in the heart of the vestiges of a war that they had not lived but to which they are systematically brought back. “His images of Srebrenica are spare and silent. They are sometimes reminiscent of the work of the great American artist Edward Hopper, whose still, sharply illuminated canvases captured some essence of human melancholy and solitude. Like Hopper, Selbert deploys realism so powerful that it takes the viewer beyond the surface into interior lives. This is realism intensely imagined, full of a revelatory fatalism.” writes the New York Times editorialist Roger Cohen to accompany the monograph published by Le Bec en l’Air in 2016.
In 2020, his series “Les Bords réels” (The Real Shores) is an extension of his long-term project on Bosnia. Twenty-five years after the Dayton Accords and the end of the conflict, “‘Les Bords réels’ is a state of time more than a state of play. It’s a long-term wandering haunted by this question: is there an after to the post-war period ? It is meant to reflect the image of the country it crosses: fragmentary, vibrant and chaotic.” His eponym photographic video is awarded with the Freelens’ New writings prize.
In parallel with his personal work, in the Balkans, but also in France with notably “Prince Jordan“, a fiction he directs in 2019 about young people facing a disaster, Adrien Selbert puts his documentary know-how and the singularity of his artistic vision at the service of the Press (Libération, Télérama, Néon, etc.), the cultural world (music labels, theater and dance companies, etc.), companies (fashion and luxury, etc.) or institutions (high schools, etc.).
His work is regularly exhibited and published, and has been distinguished with numerous awards and grants (Best Grand Reportage Award of the FIFDH, Prix Maison Blanche de la Photographie Contemporaine, the Freelens International Award for New Writings, MENTOR Jury Award, Emerging Talent Awards of LensCulture, grant to support contemporary documentary photography of the CNAP, Multimedia grant of the SCAM, etc.).
Series


The Real Edges, 2020

La Créole, 2020

Art & Fashion

The Ones Left Out of Telework, 2020

Return of Nocturnal Fever, 2020

Paris Gaypride, 2018

Belgrade, Année Zéro 17, 2017

Srebrenica, From Night to Night, 2015

Young & Queer

The Real Edges, 2020

La Créole, 2020

Art & Fashion

The Ones Left Out of Telework, 2020

Return of Nocturnal Fever, 2020

Paris Gaypride, 2018

Belgrade, Année Zéro 17, 2017

Srebrenica, From Night to Night, 2015

Young & Queer

The Real Edges, 2020

La Créole, 2020

Art & Fashion

The Ones Left Out of Telework, 2020

Return of Nocturnal Fever, 2020

Paris Gaypride, 2018

Belgrade, Année Zéro 17, 2017

Srebrenica, From Night to Night, 2015
MultimEdia

Show Reel, 2020

The Real Edges, 2020

Prince Jordan, 2019

Srebrenica, From Night to Night, 2015

L'Enclave, 2014

Nino's Place, 2010

Nino's Place, 2010

Show Reel, 2020

The Real Edges, 2020

Prince Jordan, 2019

Srebrenica, From Night to Night, 2015

L'Enclave, 2014

Nino's Place, 2010

Nino's Place, 2010

Show Reel, 2020

The Real Edges, 2020

Prince Jordan, 2019

Srebrenica, From Night to Night, 2015

L'Enclave, 2014

Nino's Place, 2010

Nino's Place, 2010
Interviews
Srebrenica, nuit à nuit
Lens Culture
—
2020
When you are 20 years old, Bosnia is a strange destination. In 2005, it is however in Srebrenica that Adrien Selbert went on a whim. At the time, the young man from Nantes (France) wanted to make a documentary film on youth. “I wanted to see what Bosnia was like ten years after the end of the conflict. Why Srebrenica? Out of curiosity“, he explains. On July 11, 1995, the Muslim enclave of this ancient spa town in Bosnia-Herzegovina fell under the control of the Serbian army, which massacred more than eight thousand men in the space of three days. Adrien still remembers the images of this war on the television news. Images that marked him.
Capture
Galerie Focale
—
2020
Explanation of a photography present in the series Srebrenica, From Night to Night for the exhibition at the Galerie Focale in Nyon (Switzerland).
Vertigo
RTS Radio
—
2017
Adrien Selbert exhibits “Srebrenica, nuit à nuit” at the Focale gallery in Nyon until June 11th 2017. A series that has won several awards on lʹaprès-guerre à Srebrenica in Bosnia-Herzegovina and published by Le Bec en lʹair (2016). A graduate of the Beaux-Arts de Nantes and the Arts Décoratifs de Paris, Adrien Selbert is also a director and editor. Adrien Selbert is the guest of Pierre Philippe Cadert.
Le photojournalisme à l’ère de Facebook et d’Instagram
France 3
—
2016
What place for photojournalism in the era of Facebook and Instagram? On France 3, alongside Olivier Laurent of Time and Jean-François Leroy, director of Visa pour l’Image-Perpignan, Adrien Selbert talks about his series Srebrenica, night after night and the unusual form he uses of GIF, a form resulting from a double-temporality that he links to the political situation in Bosnia: “(the) Bosnian territory is blocked in a post-war temporality that has lasted for 20 years in opposition with a time that repeat itself, the GIF allows these temporalities to cross”.
Le Débat de midi
France Inter
—
2016
Adrien Selbert was the guest of Thomas Chauvineau in the Midday Debate, alongside Lionel Charrier from Libération, Sam Stourzdé from the Rencontres d’Arles and André Gunthert, a specialist in visual and digital cultures.
ExhIBITIONS
Les Bords réels
—
Halle aux grains, Saint-Junien (FRANCE)
—
From October 5 to 15, 2020
Srebrenica, nuit à nuit
—
Galerie FOCALE, Nyon (SWITZERLAND)
—
From April 23 to June 11 2017
BOOKS

Les Bords Réels

Srebrenica, nuit à nuit

Les Bords Réels

Srebrenica, nuit à nuit

Les Bords Réels

Srebrenica, nuit à nuit
AWARDS
Nouvelles Écritures 2015 Award (Winner and Favorite)
For his series: Srebrenica, From Night to Night
2015
Fisheye Award of the Rencontres d’Arles (Second Price)
For his series: Srebrenica, From Night to Night
2015
Zoom Award (6th edition) at the Salon de la Photo, Paris
For his series: Srebrenica, From Night to Night
2015
Special mention of the Moscow International Foto Awards, category Photo Documentaire
For his series: Srebrenica, From Night to Night
2015
Maison Blanche Award for the Contemporary Photography
For his series: Srebrenica, From Night to Night
2015
Mentor Award #1, Favorite of the professional jury
For his series: Srebrenica, From Night to Night
2015

Étoile of la Scam, edition 2015 of Documentary Film
For “L’Enclave” directed by Aude Léa Rapin and Adrien Selbert
2015

Best Grand Reportage Award at the Festival International des droits humains of Geneva
For the film “Nino’s Place” directed by Aude Léa Rapin and Adrien Selbert
2010