Born in Stockholm, Sophie Brändström studied sociology in Paris and then in London, and turned to photography while a student at Fort Lauderdale Art Institute in Florida, where she obtained her AS in photography. She started her career as a photojournalist in the United States, working for several newspapers belonging to the country’s n°3 press group, The McClatchy Company, and notably for the Miami Herald. This first experience lasted 5 years, after which she settled in France where she worked for L’Express, Marie-Claire, L’Équipe magazine, Le Monde, Le Figaro, Le Nouvel Observateur and La Vie, and abroad, for The Sunday Times, La Repubblica and Géo in Germany. Alongside, she carried out assignments for national institutions, NGOs and foundations such as INMA (Institut National des Métiers d’art), the French Culture Ministry, the French Ministry of Education, Région Île-de-France, Médecins du Monde and Fondation Orange. She is often also frequently called on for corporate portraits or to follow leaders and personalities in the field, like the board of directors of EDF and, more recently, Manuel Valls.
Whether it be her personal work or press commissions, Sophie Brändström’s approach as a photographer is recognised for its sensitivity, its sharpness and its keen sense of respect for the other. Her way of working, drawing deeply on her experience in the U.S. and the U.K., leads her to operate over time and patiently establish close bonds with those she meets and follows. Angling her subjects so that they exude not only emotion but also meaning is her way of bearing witness through stories anchored in the everyday, intimate and resolutely modern. This humanistic vein has led her to address many topics with a societal dimension: poor housing, autism, ecological villages, … For a few years now, she has enriched her work with sociological reflection. She explores the relations between Man and work, the family, the media, social networks and the environment, which involves her in long-term projects. Since 2006, she has been an observer of the place of associative and popular radio stations in communities deprived of national democratic news services. Her travels have taken her to Kirghizstan, the Central African Republic, Colombia, Haiti and also Brazil.
2013 was a special year for her with the publication of "Manufactura Since 1662", her first monograph, with a preface by Gérard Garouste. In this photographic account centred on French manufactories, she evokes the personal histories of the men and women working there, enabling the general public to discover professions and ways of working often unknown. The book’s success and several international exhibitions dedicated to it are an eloquent tribute to her work; Manufactura was also recognized by the profession when nominated as a finalist in Photography category of the International Books Awards in USA.
Sophie Brändström is a laureate of the Atlanta and North Carolina seminars in photojournalism and the Eddie Adams Workshop; her work is regularly exhibited in institutions and at festivals such as the Mois de la Photo (Paris), Visa pour l’Image (Perpignan), Les Rencontres Internationales de la photographie (Arles), La Villette, ... For 2 years now, alongside her work as a photojournalist, she has been turning to scripting and producing videos. She has already produced several programmes which bear ample witness to her documentary and artistic talent. In 2014, she won the "Reporters d’Espoirs" prize for her web-documentary, "Ma Vie à Deux Balles".
Trained at Gobelins, l’Ecole de l’Image, Cécile & Guillaume have been photographers in Paris for over 10 years and have their own studio, located in the 13th arrondissement.
Still life is their favorite subject, within the luxury and food sectors. Uncompromising perfectionists, their duo agrees on an approach of the light and the photographic composition carefully thought-out down to the very last detail.
In addition to their commissioned work carried out on behalf of Cheval Blanc Paris, Parfums de Marly, Andros, Bosch, Grand Marnier, Nutella, Ecusson, Comtesse du Barry, Piper Heidsieck, Terraza, Ballantine's, Daunature, Lillet, Le Gaulois, Havana Club, Suze, or even Marabout Editions, they are working on personal photographic series.
Stéphane Coutelle’s work revolves endlessly around women, whom he depicts in a unique, bold, yet deeply empathic way. His pictures, beyond their plastic beauty, reveal a genuine closeness to his models.
An established beauty photographer and director, whose talent is recognized worldwide, Stephane has collaborated with the biggest fashion magazines and many brands such as L'Oréal Paris, Vichy, Lancôme, Nuxe, Guerlain, Clarins, Lierac , Helena Rubinstein, Avon, Dessange, Schwarzkopf, Armani, Sonia Rykiel Perfume.
His most memorable pictures and films feature supermodels and celebrities, including Camille Razat, Charli Howard, Alexandra Golovanoff, Laura Morante, Camille Rowe, Doutzen Kroes, Milla Jovovich, Monica Bellucci, Claudia Schiffer, Laetitia Casta and Olga Kurylenko.
Photo awards, exhibitions and books on his personal work fill his artistic and commercial career. In 2014, his book Insomnies, published by Damiani, was the subject of an exhibition in Paris as part of the Mois de la Photo. His latest book, 2020, presents his photographs of this symbolic year, between portraits and still life.
Always ready to reinvent himself and explore new domains, he is currently working on a long-term portrait project, Adolescence, about teenagers generation.
Great art enthusiast, Didier creates an image like a painter composes a canvas, with an uncompromising eye on aesthetic lines and harmonious forms. With his in-depth knowledge of habitat and furnitures, and over 20 years of photographing the most beautiful spaces, he lets his intuition guide him, offering us images of timeless elegance.
With the same artistic sensibility, Didier also explores portraiture and fashion. He collaborates with AD, Elle Décoration, Marie-Claire Maison, Idéat, Figaro Madame, The Good Life, Edgar Magazine, Résidences Décoration, Côté Paris.
His clients include Descamps, Canapés Duvivier, Ecole Ducass, Garnier Thiebaut, Groupe Accor, Home Spirit, Hôtel Les Roches Blanches - Cassis, Jalla, Mauviel, McDonald's, Moissonnier, Red Edition, Roche Bobois, Samsung, Sarah Lavoine, Toulemonde Bochart, Visto, Zimmer & Rhode / Ardecora, and many more.
Franck Hamel is a food and lifestyle photographer based in Rennes (France).
He always had a concealed passion for photography but shooting a film and developing his first photographs in the laboratory made his passion grow. He went on to study Arts at Rennes University and kept on learning the art of photography on his own.
Driven by his passion, he moved to Romania where he began his career as a photojournalist at the Romanian press agency, Mediafax, and “Regard”, a French magazine. The new challenges he faced were: to meet deadlines, adapt his work to the light, find the right angle and have a new life in post-communist Bucharest. After his experience in Romania, he moved to Vietnam.
Living in Asia was a very emotional experience with unparalleled lights, a new culture, a colorful cuisine, delicious and full of amazing flavors. Here he took his first culinary photograph, it was a picture of kumquats for East&West, lifestyle magazine. In 2009, he moved to Rabat, Morocco and worked as a photographer for Vue sur Mer, sea and boating magazine. He explored a different photographic world with new requirements and lights.
With the wealth of all this experience, in 2010, he made the decision to return to France. In Rennes, he specialized in culinary photography. From his previous experience as a photojournalist, he gained the knowledge of how to use and adapt his work to natural light. For this reason, he simply decided to use daylight for food photography without any camera tricks: the product is the only master and the photographer should adapt to the light and the product.
Young professional photographer based in Paris, graduated from EFET photography school in 2014, Juliette Jourdain has already a very powerful artistic and personal vision of portrait photography.
This great aptitude for the staging has been honored in 2015 with the 2nd PICTO Prize for Young Fashion Photography and with the 2nd prize Fisheye X Guerlain for the "La Petite Robe Noire" competitions. Juliette Jourdain executes her photographs as a painter creates a canvas. She invents a fanciful and fantastic universe, following the rhythm of her inspirations from Lady Gaga to Tim Burton. Meticulously set in studio, decors and costumes play an important role. She developed her love for visual arts well in advance of her photographic vocation. Paint, draw, cut, fold and model were the heart of her teenage hobbies.
She is currently involved in various projects from creating new imaginary characters to developing fashion photography. Her work selected for Les Nuits Photographiques of Pierrevert in July 2016, was published in January 2016 in the respected PHOTO magazine and exhibited at Les Rencontres d'Arles 2014 Festival and in France (Paris and Lyon) in 2015.
Sophie lives in Paris and is fascinated by images.
She worked for several years in advertising agencies as artistic director and creative director before continuing her career as a photographer and film maker. For over 15 years now, she has moved from one project to the next: advertising films, photographic commissions for brands like Dior, Vanessa Mitrani, Alex Rotin, Yves Rocher, Valentine Gauthier, Catimini, Mustela, Petit Bateau, Z, … and contributions for magazines like Elle Beauty.
With great mastery of movement, Sophie likes to capture the carefreeness of children and crystallise the delicateness of a detail. Nothing is ever frozen in her photographs; they are an ode to life where majestic nature regularly finds its place, bringing here and there a breath of fresh air. She also enjoys integrating into her photographic series twists on traditional staging as if to reinforce the magic of time.
Alongside, Sophie develops personal series in which she suspends time by forcefully seizing the poetry which surrounds us. Her photos attest to a certain sweetness of life and awaken all our senses. In 2019, for her ‘Respiration’ series, she won the Prix Objectif Femmes, a photographic event dedicated to women photographers.
When Laurent began his career as a photographer in 1993, he won two important prizes: The Book Major Ilford and the Broncolor Prize at Arles. He was not long in lining up advertising commissions and editorials for the press, specialising in fashion and characters photography.
Today, Laurent divides his time between Paris and Toulouse where, in 2011, along with a team of professional photographers, he created Studio Lucette, a work tool and also a place where artists can exchange. His credo is the ‘non-photo’, the unconventional photo, a photo that is not frozen but conveys emotions or some unexpected discrepancy. He shoots without setting down his camera in order to obtain a ‘true’ photo, marked by the total absence of formatting and formal aestheticism.
In 2006, his desire to translate his feelings more fully led him to explore human stories and real life. His sensitive, intuitive look then blossomed in reportage and in culinary photography, two worlds bringing together what animates him: encounters, the poetry of daily life and the unvarnished product.
Born in Paris in 1986, Lucie Sassiat grew up atop the cliffs of Brittany. There, she developed her obsession with raw beauty, light beams, white dresses and the fierce blueness of the sea. Haunted by the muses of Antiquity, she strives to reveal in her images a contrasting version of the feminine: truth and falsehood, revolt and melancholy, which she stages using young women as models, alone or in tribes.
An avid globetrotter, Lucie captures stolen moments in the four corners of the earth but she also – and especially – enjoys photographing women, fascinated by their place in the world and the way they move there. The heroines of her images have a story to tell; their heads are full of grief or laughter. She likes to create a link with each one of them and literally plunges into their eyes to find her inspiration.
Her work is a fervent evocation of Francesca Woodman, Françoise Sagan, the witches of the 21st century, or again, the music from ‘The Piano Lesson’. Lucie regularly works for the press and for the fashion industry, where she displays her taste for natural light and for soft, cheerful stagings.
