Born 1959 in Arras, France, and currently resident in Paris.
Hugues Fontaine, filmmaker and photographer, has worked in Europe as well as in the Middle East, in South and East Africa. His published works reflect his liking for those areas: the Euphrates River in Syria, Zanzibar, seaports in Europe, the Red Sea or the Arabian Gulf, archaeological remains around the Mediterranean Sea… Recently, he has taken a special interest in his home country through various commissioned works: the coal mines district, the "Reconstruction" in Picardy after World War I, the social utopia implemented by Andre Godin within the "Familistere" in Guise.
Both here and over there, he pictures human activities and their incidence. Neither portraits nor scenery, his photographs are taken from the distinctive position he favours, not too far, not too close, in a manner that is not exactly narrative. This delicate balance would serve to describe Hugues Fontaine's attitude, if he was not furthermore attracted to fleeting worlds, for which he acts as an unwearied recorder of the numerous, and yet remarkable, photographic coincidences of daily life. This is his first stay in Japan.
http://www.huguesfontaine.com