Bernard Faucon

Bernard Faucon (1950- ) is a French photographer and writer.

Faucon was born in Provence, France and attended the Lycee d'Apt. From 1969 he studied philosophy and theology and graduated from the University of Sorbonne in 1973. He worked as a painter from 1966 until 1976 and then as a photographer until 1995 when he voluntarily chose to stop.

Faucon makes staged photography, using medium format cameras. His style, —saturated colors and surrealism, rooms and natural settings, boys and mannequis for subjects—reveals a love of youth and dreamy beauty. His work has been compared to that of Jan Saudek.

His major photographic series are, in date-order: Les Grandes Vacances (1976-1981); Évolution probable du Temps (1981-1984); Chambres d'Amour (1984-1987), Chambres d'Or (1987-1989); Idoles et Sacrifices (1989-1991); Les Écritures (1991-1992); and La Fin de L'image (1993-1995). From 1997 to 2000, he organized in twenty countries around the world, the event "The Happiest Day of My Youth" involving one hundred young people in each country. His first book of texts only, La peur du voyage appeared in 1999.

Faucon has won numerous awards from his work, including the Grand Prix National de la Photographie (1989), and the Prix Leonard de Vinci (1991). Since 1977 he has had nearly 250 solo exhibitions. In 2002, the Moscow House of Photography held a Bernard Faucon Festival, and he was invited to officially open the Moscow Biennale.

Bibliography of his work

Books in French:

• Les Grandes Vacances, Herscher, Paris 1980
• Les Papiers qui Volent, Hazan, Paris 1986
• Les Chambres d'Amour, William Blake, Bordeaux 1987
• Tables d'Amis, William Blake, 1991
• Les Écritures, William Blake, 1993
• Jours d'Image, Tréville, Tokyo 1995
• La Fin de l'Image, William Blake 1997
• Chambres d'Amour, Chambres d'Or, William Blake 1998
• La Peur du Voyage, William Blake 1999
• Le Plus Beau Jour de ma Jeunesse, Éditions de l'Imprimeur, Paris 2000
• La Plus Belle Route du Monde, with Antonin Potoski, POL, Paris 2000
• Atelier Faucon à Pingyao, Édition de l'Oeil, Paris, 2004
• Bernard Faucon, Actes Sud, Arles, 2005.

Books in English:

• Summer Camp, Xavier Moreau, New York 1980

Books in Japanese and French:

• Les Papiers qui Volent, Parco, Tokyo 1986
• Les Idoles et les Sacrifices, Parco, Tokyo 1991
• Dernier Portrait, Nanasaï, Kyoto 1991
• Jours d'Image, Tréville, Tokyo 1995

Books in Korean:

• La plus belle route, Maumsanchak, Seoul, 2001
• Les chambres, Maumsanchak, Seoul, 2004

Critical essays

Guy Davenport. "The Illuminations of Bernard Faucon and Anthony Goicolea," The Georgia Review 56, no. 4 (Winter 2002): 961-984.

External links

• Official website
• A gallery of Faucon pictures featuring boys at Joseph Geraci Rare Books and Photographs