Jean-François Lepage Is a French photographer and painter born in Paris, France in 1960.
For the past three decades while the world saw dreams in its sleep, Jean-Francois Lepage was seeing them while wide awake. Translating his visions into captivating photographs, drawings, paintings, and collages, Lepage stops time to wander in the surreal landscapes of the subconscious moments caught in between the conscious movements of the individual.
Working out of Paris, France, Lepage has created a hybrid body of work that laces together cinema, surrealism, and haute-couture. His subjects stand lonesome, numb to their own high fashion glamour, deeply gazing into a void that seduces their hidden souls with an ecstasy of solitude and the eventual promise of death.
The images, at first site, appear to be carefully crafted with dramatic artificial lighting, highly saturated color choices, exaggerated wardrobe and makeup styling, and the flawlessly placed models. But when one begins to engage with the images with further pursuit for meaning, one realizes that what stands before them is purity.
Past the complex exterior of each composition, Lepage captures the moments of truth that expose the individual more than they, themselves, can understand. A subtle movement or gesture completes each frame to the highest point of perfection. The effect is both soothing and physically disturbing.
Past the complex exterior of each composition, Lepage captures the moments of truth that expose the individual more than they, themselves, can understand. A subtle movement or gesture completes each frame to the highest point of perfection. The effect is both soothing and physically disturbing.
Lepage has set himself apart as both a fashion photographer and a visual artist with his innovative approach of merging the two worlds into his own conceptual universe of image making. With the use of drawing and deconstructed collage, Lepage further pushes his work to explore his insights on individuality, mortality, and the unspoken forces which guide the sublime emotional instincts of the human mind.
The haunting work of Jean-Francois Lepage speaks the universal language of solitude, self-reflection, and the uncontrollable desire to find beauty and comfort in the mysterious truth behind life, death, and everything else in between.”
Darya Kosilova for The Lab magazine – September 2012
His most recent exhibitions are:
Memories from the future at the 3rd International Photography Festival in Rishon LeZion, Israel
April 5 – April 25, 2014
April 5 – April 25, 2014
Memories from the future (selection) at Galerie Madé in Paris, France
November 6, 2013 – January 7, 2014
November 6, 2013 – January 7, 2014
Memories from the future at 28th festival of Hyères (Villa Noailles) in Hyères, France
April 28 – May 26, 2013
April 28 – May 26, 2013
Color at Camera Work Gallery in Berlin, Germany
Sept 15 – Dec 01, 2012 (Collective exhibition)
Sept 15 – Dec 01, 2012 (Collective exhibition)
MoonLight at Bacc – Art Cultural Center in Bangkok, Thailand
February 18 – May 01, 2011
February 18 – May 01, 2011
Upcoming exhibition:
Memories from the future (selection) at Quai 26 Gallery in Lille, France
Opening November 2014
Opening November 2014
Fore more than 30 years Lepage’s photographs have been published in many international magazines:
AnOtherMan Magazine | All Magazine | A Magazine [Curated by] | Blink | Bmm Magazine | Common & Sense | Dazed and Confused | Double | Exit Magazine | Grey Magazine | GQ | Harper’s Bazaar | Italian Amica Magazine | jill Magazine | Mixte | Numero | Nylon | Purple | Self Service | Spoon Magazine | 7000 Magazine | Sleek | Stiletto | Spoon | TAR Magazine | The Lab Magazine | Twill | Vogue | Wall Paper…
Jean-Francois has four children, Vincent, Nuage, Norma and Saule.
