Sophie Chivet

Sophie
Chivet

biography

French photographer born in 1962, based in Paris.

Just graduated from the Ecole Nationale des Arts Décoratifs de Paris, Sophie Chivet was distinguished in 1985 by the Biennale “Moins Trente” organized by the Centre National de la Photographie to reveal and support young photographers. After initial professional experiences as a teacher of academic drawing and photography, then as a photographer for the European organization Eurocontrol, Sophie Chivet established herself as a freelance photographer in 1990 and began working for the French daily newspaper Libération.

Whether in France or abroad (Mali, Madagascar, Ivory Coast, Vietnam, Portugal), on assignment for the Press (Libération, Bayard Presse, l’Express, Figaro Magazine, etc.), institutions (Conseil Régional d’Île-de-France, OPPIC, MIGT, Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie, etc.) or on her personal projects, her photography reveals her passion for architecture: Strongly outlined by pure structures, her portraits like her visions of buildings or fine details in clothing or animals are always filled with finesse. Whether working in black and white or colour, with rectangle or square format, she commits her work to a sharp light and a pure layout (Christian Caujolle). Fleeing the emptiness of easy effects, she rigorously plays with a notion perfectly derived from tasteful classicism at the service of the subject.

Author of three monographs, winner of the “Moins Trenete” (CNP) and Polycontrast (Kodak) competitions and of grants from the FRAC Île de France, Sophie Chivet’s work has been included in the collection of the French National Contemporary Art Fund. Her work has been exhibited in galleries, media libraries and contemporary art spaces in France, as well as at the Palais de Tokyo (Paris), the Museum of Natural History (Paris), the Promenades photographiques festival in Vendôme and the French Cultural Institute in Yaoundé (Cameroon).

Series

Parisian Wanderings, 2020

Series | To take an image when there is nothing left to photograph, when the tension falls and the mind awakens.

Journey, 2012

Série | Here as elsewhere, I like to go where the wind takes me. Little preparation. It is the encounters that make everything.

Sophie Chivet séries

La Lumière des jours, 2007

Series | Over the seasons Sophie Chivet has seized the forms, the light, the wind that gently makes grass move.

Sophie Chivet séries

Mont Saint Michel, Normandy, 2001

Series | The « Wonder of the Western World » forms a tower in the heart of an immense bay invaded by the highest tides in Europe. It was at the request of the Archangel Michel « chief of the celestial militia » that Aubert, Bishop of Avranches built and consecrated a small church on the 16th October 709.