François Fontaine

Career

François Fontaine was born in Paris, France, in 1968. He holds a PhD in Art History. 

Visual Style

A pas­sion­ate trav­eler and pho­tog­ra­pher, François Fontaine has spent the past twenty years cre­at­ing chro­matic and dream­like series inspired by Eastern cul­tures. For the past decade, he has explored the themes of indi­vid­ual and col­lec­tive mem­ory through films and paint­ings. His hyp­notic and time­less images, based on films — both fic­tion and doc­u­men­tary works — pro­jected onto screens, invite view­ers into iconic inner jour­neys. This approach is reflected in his many series, includ­ing : Rêve d’Orient, Silenzio, Icônes, and American Dream, among others. 

Works and Recognition

François Fontaine’s work can be found in numer­ous col­lec­tions, includ­ing the National Library of France, the European House of Photography, the Fnac Collection, the Hermès Foundation, Leica Camera, the Robert Doisneau House of Photography (Gentilly), the Lumière Institute (Lyon), and the Guangdong Museum of Art (Guangzhou, China).

Reading the Work

François Fontaine’s work finds its bal­ance in a chro­matic, dream­like, and time­less aes­thetic shaped by Eastern cul­tures, cin­ema, and pro­jected imagery. It stands out through its hyp­notic atmos­phere, sub­tle rela­tion­ship with color, and its abil­ity to trans­form images into inner mem­o­ries. Viewing his work ben­e­fits from close atten­tion to nuance: a com­po­si­tional detail, a par­tic­u­lar dis­tance from the sub­ject, a qual­ity of light, or a tex­ture often reveals the depth of the image.