Agnès
Bonnot

Agnès Bonnot

biography

After having been a model, actress, stuntman on horseback, Agnès Bonnot was nearly 30 years old when she decided to take up photography and joined the VU Agency. We are in 1986. In 1987, she receives the famous Prix Niepce.
She is in her generation, one of the best connoisseurs of the history of photography. This allowed her, with a rare rigor, to develop her work without being trapped by the facilities offered by the practice of the silver image which, in any case, produces the image.

She was immediately recognized for her work on horses – she is an emeritus rider – who accompanied, in the newspaper Libération, Homeric’s irreplaceable chronicles. She knew how to see horses as beings, as individuals, and she made portraits of them, real portraits, before focusing on details of their morphology in strict frames, then exalting the sensuality of their coat and celebrating, in black and white and in square format, the power of effort for dynamic snapshots.

Before she decided, for reasons of life choices, to no longer practice photography in a professional setting, she created definitive images by capturing details of passers-by in the streets of Paris, which are a wonderful alternative to the idea of portraiture.

She was one of the key players in the collective project that brought together nine photographers to explore the Palais Garnier in Paris.

SEries

Chanel's Workshops, 1993

In the heart of the Chanel haute couture workshops in Paris.

Schools of Paris, 1992

At the heart of Parisian schools, Agnès Bonnot photographed the daily life of students from kindergarten to high school.

Alexandria, 1989

Alexandria, Egypt

Opéra Garnier, 1988

Agnès Bonnot slipped into the closed but fascinating world behind the scenes of the Palais Garnier, with the aesthetic bias of centering mainly on the dancers’ feet.

Horses, 1985

Through Black and White pictures and square format, the envy of framing and creating movement inside the square, she manages to balance the natural rigidity.

Chanel's Workshops, 1993

In the heart of the Chanel haute couture workshops in Paris.

Schools of Paris, 1992

At the heart of Parisian schools, Agnès Bonnot photographed the daily life of students from kindergarten to high school.

Alexandria, 1989

Alexandria, Egypt

Opéra Garnier, 1988

Agnès Bonnot slipped into the closed but fascinating world behind the scenes of the Palais Garnier, with the aesthetic bias of centering mainly on the dancers’ feet.

Horses, 1985

Through Black and White pictures and square format, the envy of framing and creating movement inside the square, she manages to balance the natural rigidity.

Chanel's Workshops, 1993

In the heart of the Chanel haute couture workshops in Paris.

Schools of Paris, 1992

At the heart of Parisian schools, Agnès Bonnot photographed the daily life of students from kindergarten to high school.

Alexandria, 1989

Alexandria, Egypt

Opéra Garnier, 1988

Agnès Bonnot slipped into the closed but fascinating world behind the scenes of the Palais Garnier, with the aesthetic bias of centering mainly on the dancers’ feet.

Horses, 1985

Through Black and White pictures and square format, the envy of framing and creating movement inside the square, she manages to balance the natural rigidity.

BOOKS

Cambrésis Textile

Editions Premier Janvier - 2000

La mode, une nouvelle génération

Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain - 1988

Chevaux, photographies, 1985

Editions Fernand HAZAN - 1985

Cambrésis Textile

Editions Premier Janvier - 2000

La mode, une nouvelle génération

Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain - 1988

Chevaux, photographies, 1985

Editions Fernand HAZAN - 1985

Cambrésis Textile

Editions Premier Janvier - 2000

La mode, une nouvelle génération

Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain - 1988

Chevaux, photographies, 1985

Editions Fernand HAZAN - 1985

AWARDS

Niepce Award (France)

1987