Martine Fougeron

Teen Tribe

Fougeron's primary fine art photography project since 2005 has been her series in which she offers an intimate portrait of the lives of her two adolescent sons. The work explores adolescence as a liminal, between childhood and adulthood, between the feminine and the masculine and between innocence and a burgeoning self-identity. The focus is on the adolescents’ heightened states of minds.

"One of the best biographical stories that photography has crafted in the 2000s", Charlotte Cotton, curator and critic.

"Fougeron's pictures of Adrien or Nicolas sleeping or lounging about in Greenwich Village and the South of France have a lovely looseness and spontaneity, but they never feel like snapshots. Color energizes the work and adds to its sensual undertow", Vince Aletti, critic.

“The gaze is telling in these pictures. The boys are figuring out who they are and who they want to become while staring out at both their mother and the artist, the push and pull of separating from family while gaining strength from it. Growing up is not always easy, but Fougeron gracefully shows us the metamorphosis in all its complicated beauty”, says Cory Jacobs, curator of the Gallery at Hermès in New York City.

Images from this series have been featured in solo exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia as well as France, Korea, China, and Switzerland. They were singled out as particularly notable at a recent New York Photo Festival by Ken Johnson of The New York Times, have received numerous awards and are in the permanent collections of several museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Bronx Museum of the Arts and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

A book on Fougeron's work from this series, Teen Tribe: A World with Two Sons, will be published by Steidl in 2016.

The South Bronx Trades

The South Bronx Trades series, initiated in 2011 and still in progress, documents the active industries and manufacturing enterprises of Port Morris and Hunts Point, revealing to the viewer the unseen places and unheralded workers of the South Bronx. In contrast with the grim imagery often associated with the South Bronx, Fougeron’s photographs show us that industry persists and thrives in the borough. This project gains particular relevance as residents of The South Bronx feel the pressure of gentrification and rezoning. Some of the industries photographed by Fougeron are over a century old, while others were created in the 21st century.

“ Shooting the employees as well as their products, Fougeron sought to capture the striking aesthetics of these tight-knit, under-the-radar communities. Narrative rather than journalistic, her photographs embrace a fine art formality that lends her subject matter an undeniable dignity.”, Kat Herriman.

“ Ms. Fougeron decided to cover photographically each trade in four different ways. Her compelling portraits focus on the working people; her striking landscapes place the project geographically; her environmental pictures are both informative and reflective; and her close-ups are simply beautiful abstractions. Together it adds up to a remarkable artistic document of Port Morris and Hunts Point.”, says Elisabeth Biondi (Visuals Editor at The New Yorker 1996-2011, Independent Curator, Writer and Teacher).

Editorial work

Martine Fougeron is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, New York Magazine, The Wall Street Journal Magazine and FT week end.

Teacher

Fougeron is on the Faculty of the International Center of Photography and has been a visiting lecturer at Pratt Institute, New York University and the School of Visual Arts.

Solo exhibitions

Selected publications in catalogues and books

Selected press