Olivier
Coulange

Olivier Coulange

biography

French photographer born in 1962, lives in Orléans.

Olivier Coulange joined the Agency VU’ in 1992 and affirmed the need for a photography that explores the contemporary world by documenting major societal issues.

He develops his projects over time, often coming back to his subjects in order to complete them, to give them greater complexity, to approach them from other angles. He has revealed over long periods of time, with modesty and tenderness, the world of autistic children (Antonin 1993-2012), the world of palliative care within the hospital sector, the situation of the homeless, the life of drag queens in countryside, the disinheritance of the working class (Working Class Heroes), or the collective life in low-income housing districts… Beyond the diversity of the subjects, it is his approach to marginality and its relationship to the social viewpoint that his photography reveals.

“Many of my works focus on the marginality due to a difference, a state or a practice. The Internet is a place where this marginality is expressed with great freedom of means.”

Since the 2000s Olivier Coulange has been taking an interest in the digital revolution. Whether in the affirmation of an intimacy (Extimités), or in the construction of a common social history (The phone point of view: the Tunisian revolution on the Internet), his work questions the status of amateur images, and the place of the individual who has become a “consumer producer” in a contemporary world where the notion of representation gets a new dimension.

Series

New- York, 2017

Olivier Coulange travels to New York in December 2017 and makes a series of black and white photographs, born from his wanderings and urban explorations in the city. Taking advantage of the photographic blur for his series, he creates an intriguing portrait of this iconic city.

There is no such thing as adult autistic, 2013

For the past 18 years, I have been photographing autistic and psychotic children in their family universe; this work, which will continue for a few more years, leads me to think and rethink my work as a photographer.

Antonin, 2012

For almost 20 years, Olivier Coulange documented the daily life of Antonin and his family, and the way they cope with autism.

Working Class Heroes, 2014

With this series of portraits of workers, which the photographer poses frontally and integrates by a game of superimposition in their factory, Olivier Coulange questions both the worker's condition and the ambivalent relationship that these subjects have with their work tools.

Extimacy, craving for visibility, 2011

Serie | What are those who broadcast their image on the Internet through webcams looking for? And what do those who watch them get out of it?

Web Side Story, 2010

Our society is one of media explosion: between sounds, images and instantaneousness, the Internet is the paroxysm of it. The new social networks make it possible to connect with the whole world. From chat sites, they are now moving to streaming video communication.

Eros plastiques, 2006-2009

In this series, Olivier Coulange photographs a steamy vision of naked bodies. They are in fact TV screen captures...he takes over industrially produced porno pictures.

Sadism and masochism, 2006

Sexual practice between consenting adult partners who often establish master-slave relationship.

Forced sterilization in Peru, 2004

The Indian population was by far the most affected by these sterilizations.

Young Autists Make their Show, 2001

From the fringe of Avignon festival to the “Arts et Déchirures” festival in Rouen, a theatre troupe forming by young autistics and psychotics people has been performing for twenty years.

Be a Drag Queen in Orléans, 2001

In Orleans, as in a lot of places, men become women once the night comes. Wanting to be the other when we come on stage goes far back the time where women have no right to play comedy.

Palliative care unit, 1997

This report was realized in the palliative cares unit of the Paul Brousse hospital. Treating or curing is not the aim of this unit, it takes care of people whose the illness can’t be stopped and of whose death is near.

Blurred Pictures of Homeless people, 1996

Olivier Coulange made many reports on the harsh reality of the homeless. Through blurred portraits, he testifies to the daily life of these anonymous people, who live and sleep on the sidewalks of increasingly impersonal cities.

Princess Hannah, with the homeless, 1989-1994

Few photographers have had the courage and constancy of Olivier Coulange who, since 1989, has been accompanying the homeless, watching them debate and testifying while living with them, in the Salvation Army and in the streets.

New- York, 2017

Olivier Coulange travels to New York in December 2017 and makes a series of black and white photographs, born from his wanderings and urban explorations in the city. Taking advantage of the photographic blur for his series, he creates an intriguing portrait of this iconic city.

There is no such thing as adult autistic, 2013

For the past 18 years, I have been photographing autistic and psychotic children in their family universe; this work, which will continue for a few more years, leads me to think and rethink my work as a photographer.

Antonin, 2012

For almost 20 years, Olivier Coulange documented the daily life of Antonin and his family, and the way they cope with autism.

Working Class Heroes, 2014

With this series of portraits of workers, which the photographer poses frontally and integrates by a game of superimposition in their factory, Olivier Coulange questions both the worker's condition and the ambivalent relationship that these subjects have with their work tools.

Extimacy, craving for visibility, 2011

Serie | What are those who broadcast their image on the Internet through webcams looking for? And what do those who watch them get out of it?

Web Side Story, 2010

Our society is one of media explosion: between sounds, images and instantaneousness, the Internet is the paroxysm of it. The new social networks make it possible to connect with the whole world. From chat sites, they are now moving to streaming video communication.

Eros plastiques, 2006-2009

In this series, Olivier Coulange photographs a steamy vision of naked bodies. They are in fact TV screen captures...he takes over industrially produced porno pictures.

Sadism and masochism, 2006

Sexual practice between consenting adult partners who often establish master-slave relationship.

Forced sterilization in Peru, 2004

The Indian population was by far the most affected by these sterilizations.

Young Autists Make their Show, 2001

From the fringe of Avignon festival to the “Arts et Déchirures” festival in Rouen, a theatre troupe forming by young autistics and psychotics people has been performing for twenty years.

Be a Drag Queen in Orléans, 2001

In Orleans, as in a lot of places, men become women once the night comes. Wanting to be the other when we come on stage goes far back the time where women have no right to play comedy.

Palliative care unit, 1997

This report was realized in the palliative cares unit of the Paul Brousse hospital. Treating or curing is not the aim of this unit, it takes care of people whose the illness can’t be stopped and of whose death is near.

Blurred Pictures of Homeless people, 1996

Olivier Coulange made many reports on the harsh reality of the homeless. Through blurred portraits, he testifies to the daily life of these anonymous people, who live and sleep on the sidewalks of increasingly impersonal cities.

Princess Hannah, with the homeless, 1989-1994

Few photographers have had the courage and constancy of Olivier Coulange who, since 1989, has been accompanying the homeless, watching them debate and testifying while living with them, in the Salvation Army and in the streets.

New- York, 2017

Olivier Coulange travels to New York in December 2017 and makes a series of black and white photographs, born from his wanderings and urban explorations in the city. Taking advantage of the photographic blur for his series, he creates an intriguing portrait of this iconic city.

There is no such thing as adult autistic, 2013

For the past 18 years, I have been photographing autistic and psychotic children in their family universe; this work, which will continue for a few more years, leads me to think and rethink my work as a photographer.

Antonin, 2012

For almost 20 years, Olivier Coulange documented the daily life of Antonin and his family, and the way they cope with autism.

Working Class Heroes, 2014

With this series of portraits of workers, which the photographer poses frontally and integrates by a game of superimposition in their factory, Olivier Coulange questions both the worker's condition and the ambivalent relationship that these subjects have with their work tools.

Extimacy, craving for visibility, 2011

Serie | What are those who broadcast their image on the Internet through webcams looking for? And what do those who watch them get out of it?

Web Side Story, 2010

Our society is one of media explosion: between sounds, images and instantaneousness, the Internet is the paroxysm of it. The new social networks make it possible to connect with the whole world. From chat sites, they are now moving to streaming video communication.

Eros plastiques, 2006-2009

In this series, Olivier Coulange photographs a steamy vision of naked bodies. They are in fact TV screen captures...he takes over industrially produced porno pictures.

Sadism and masochism, 2006

Sexual practice between consenting adult partners who often establish master-slave relationship.

Forced sterilization in Peru, 2004

The Indian population was by far the most affected by these sterilizations.

Young Autists Make their Show, 2001

From the fringe of Avignon festival to the “Arts et Déchirures” festival in Rouen, a theatre troupe forming by young autistics and psychotics people has been performing for twenty years.

Be a Drag Queen in Orléans, 2001

In Orleans, as in a lot of places, men become women once the night comes. Wanting to be the other when we come on stage goes far back the time where women have no right to play comedy.

Palliative care unit, 1997

This report was realized in the palliative cares unit of the Paul Brousse hospital. Treating or curing is not the aim of this unit, it takes care of people whose the illness can’t be stopped and of whose death is near.

Blurred Pictures of Homeless people, 1996

Olivier Coulange made many reports on the harsh reality of the homeless. Through blurred portraits, he testifies to the daily life of these anonymous people, who live and sleep on the sidewalks of increasingly impersonal cities.

Princess Hannah, with the homeless, 1989-1994

Few photographers have had the courage and constancy of Olivier Coulange who, since 1989, has been accompanying the homeless, watching them debate and testifying while living with them, in the Salvation Army and in the streets.

Interviews

Olivier Coulange, “Antonin, Living With Autism”
OCIRP
—
2013

Interview with photographer Olivier Coulange, about his work devoted to Antonin. “Antonin, living with autism” is a series of photographs taken over more than 18 years, they show rare moments, out of time, of a young child diagnosed as autistic. We discover him with his loved ones, alone, in moments of joy as well as in anguish. The photographer’s gaze manages to freeze what very often escapes us.

BOOKS

Princess Hannah

Actes Sud - 1998

Princess Hannah

Actes Sud - 1998

Princess Hannah

Actes Sud - 1998