Siddhesh Joshi (Editor)

Lise Sarfati

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Name
  
Lise Sarfati

Role
  
Photographer

Books
  
Acta est


Lise Sarfati A Russian Poem The Morning News

Lise sarfati she


Lise Sarfati (born 1958) is a French photographer. Her images of cities in Russia and young people in the United States paint a sometimes despondent picture inspired by her own imagination.

Contents

Lise Sarfati Lise Sarfati She Actual Colors May Vary ACMV

Lise Sarfati interview - the Guardian


Life and work

Lise Sarfati staticguimcouksysimagesObserverPixpictures

Born in Oran, French Algeria, Sarfati grew up in Nice, France, graduating in Russian from the Sorbonne in 1979 with a thesis on Russian photography. In 1986, she became the official photographer for the Académie des Beaux Arts. From 1989 to 1998, she lived in Russia, photographing decaying industrial sites and abandoned young people in Moscow, Norilsk and Vorkuta. Her first book, Acta Est, presents 43 of her Russian photographs and explains her imaginative appreciation of deterioration, change and beauty.

Lise Sarfati Lise Sarfati 39The New Life Interview39 2011

In 2003, she photographed solitary young adults in the United States as she travelled through Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, Louisiana, Oregon, and California. They all appear to lack enthusiasm for action. The works were first presented as The New Life at New York's Yossi Milo Gallery in 2005 and were published as The New Life/La Vie Nouvelle.

Lise Sarfati Yossi Milo Gallery Exhibitions Lise Sarfati

Other American projects have included Austin, Texas (2008) and On Hollywood (2010), the latter made with her last rolls of Kodachrome 64 and presented at Yossi Milo in 2012. Miranda Siegel of New York magazine described Sarfati's depictions in this exhibition: "Never demeaning or pathetic, these portraits show resilience and a willingness to give up everything to chase a dream."

Lise Sarfati Sarfati1bigjpg

She (2012) presented two middle-aged women, the photos exhibited at Brancolini Grimaldi in London the same year.

Assessment

Writing in The Observer, Sean O'Hagan states that "Sarfati's photographs, though deceptively simple on first viewing, have a mysterious quality that is to do, in part, with her deft merging of portraiture, snapshot and arranged tableau."

Publications

  • Acta Est. Phaidon, 2007. ISBN 978-0-7148-4842-6. With Olga Medvedkova.
  • The New Life. Santa Fe: Twin Palms, 2005. ISBN 978-1-931885-45-4.
  • Fashion Magazine: Lise Sarfati: Austin, Texas. New York: Magnum, 2008. ISBN 978-2-952410-22-9. With Quentin Bajac.
  • She. Santa Fe: Twin Palms, 2012. ISBN 978-1-936611-00-3.

    • Exhibitions

  • FOAM Fotografiemuseum, Amsterdam.
  • Centre National de la Photographie, Paris.
  • Maison européenne de la photographie, Paris.
  • Rencontres d'Arles festival.
  • La Maison Rouge, Paris.
  • Domus Artium, Salamanca.
  • The Nicolaj Center of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen.

    • Collections

    Sarfati's work is held in the following public collections:

  • San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
  • Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
  • Brooklyn Museum of Art.
  • Philadelphia Museum of Art.
  • Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
  • Fonds National d'Art Contemporain, Paris.

    • References

    Lise Sarfati Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA