
Françoise
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


Learn how to die in South Korea, 2015

K-POP in Malaysia, 2014

Hijab in Indonesia, 2013

Nuns of Colombia, 2013

Flowers of skin, 2013

Kommounalki, 2008

I was eight years old, 2005

Sublimes, 1999

Secrets women, 1996

Durban, South Africa, 1996

In march for Behring, 1993

Sur les traces de l’Afrique fantôme, 1990

Virtual Seoul, 2016

Learn how to die in South Korea, 2015

K-POP in Malaysia, 2014

Hijab in Indonesia, 2013

Nuns of Colombia, 2013

Flowers of skin, 2013

Kommounalki, 2008

I was eight years old, 2005

Sublimes, 1999

Secrets women, 1996

Durban, South Africa, 1996

In march for Behring, 1993

Sur les traces de l’Afrique fantôme, 1990

Virtual Seoul, 2016

Learn how to die in South Korea, 2015

K-POP in Malaysia, 2014

Hijab in Indonesia, 2013

Nuns of Colombia, 2013

Flowers of skin, 2013

Kommounalki, 2008

I was eight years old, 2005

Sublimes, 1999

Secrets women, 1996

Durban, South Africa, 1996

In march for Behring, 1993

Sur les traces de l’Afrique fantôme, 1990
Multimedia

Kommunalka (extrait), 2008

Kommunalka (extrait), 2008

Kommunalka (extrait), 2008
Interviews
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
Exposition Françoise Huguier
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Le Parvis Espace Culturel, Pau (FRANCE)
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From January 26 to March 30, 2019
BOOKS

The curious one

100 photographs of Françoise Huguier for the freedom of press

Virtual Seoul

Au doigt et à l’œil : Self-portrait of a photographer

Nuns

Photo Poche n°142

Kommunalki

I was eight years old

Sublimes

Secrets

In march for Behring – travel notes from Siberia

Sur les traces de l’Afrique fantôme

The curious one

100 photographs of Françoise Huguier for the freedom of press

Virtual Seoul

Au doigt et à l’œil : Self-portrait of a photographer

Nuns

Photo Poche n°142

Kommunalki

I was eight years old

Sublimes

Secrets

In march for Behring – travel notes from Siberia

Sur les traces de l’Afrique fantôme

The curious one

100 photographs of Françoise Huguier for the freedom of press

Virtual Seoul

Au doigt et à l’œil : Self-portrait of a photographer

Nuns

Photo Poche n°142

Kommunalki

I was eight years old

Sublimes

Secrets

In march for Behring – travel notes from Siberia

Sur les traces de l’Afrique fantôme
Awards

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