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Martine Fougeron is a fine art photographer living and working in New York whose work has been exhibited internationally and is held in major public and private collections. Her incisive images of life and culture in that city have made her a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, The Wall Street Journal Magazine, New York Magazine, FT and Les Echos Week-End.
Fougeron was born in Paris and studied at LFNY, l’Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris, Wellesley College and the International Center of Photography. She has been living in New York since 1996 and working as a photographer since 2006 when she graduated from ICP’s General Studies program– having turned to photography after a successful career as a Creative Director in the fragrance industry where she was the ‘nose of the noses’ of 20 world-class perfumers.
Fougeron’s award-winning fine art project ‘Teen Tribe’ offers an intimate portrait of the lives of her two adolescent sons and their group of friends. Fougeron has mounted solo shows in Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia and her work has been exhibited internationally in China, France, Italy, South Korea, and Switzerland. This work was exhibited at The Gallery at Hermès in NY in 2013 and is held in major collections including the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. The Philadelphia Museum of Art and The Bronx Museum of the Arts. The publication by Steidl of the ‘Teen Tribe’ is forthcoming in 2017.
Fougeron artistic document of ‘The South Bronx Trades’ is a revelation of the immense diversity of skills present in the South Bronx. The work was exhibited in a solo show at The Bronx Museum of The Arts in 2016.
Martine is the founder of The Photography Master Retreat– a one-week mentor-led intensive workshop for passionate photographers in the south of France after Les Rencontres d’ Arles in July of each year. Click here to learn more or apply.
[…] Martine Fougeron is at the end of a six-year project about trade in the South Bronx. For the project, she began researching trades around her immediate vicinity. Eventually, she began knocking on doors asking if she could photograph people at work doing their trades. Fougeron photographed people at work as well as the products they make revealing the craftsmanship of the work. Through her research, Fougeron tracked the evolving landscape of trade in the area. Once a hub for piano manufacturing, Fougeron explains that this trade has gone by the wayside as time and technology have advanced. Gaining access to these places sometimes proved very difficult. Ultimately it was Fougeron’s community engagement that facilitated her access in many cases. Reactions to the portraits by those portrayed in the images was complex. Sensitivity was mixed with a sense of pride at the recognition of their work. Fougeron encountered a strong sense of camaraderie among the workers she encountered during her six-year project. She now has 21 trades documented and is looking for a publisher. Previous to the trades project, Fougeron created a body of work titled Teen Tribes. Before changing careers to become an artist, Fougeron worked in the perfume industry. After 9/11 with her career becoming too corporate for her comfort level and with two sons to raise, Fougeron went back to school. During this time her sons were adolescents and Fougeron wished to better understand them and their peers. It was from this that Teen Tribes was created. The work examined socialization among teens during what is a tumultuous time of life. For the project, Fougeron even accompanied a group of teens on a party bus post-prom. Throughout the time she worked on this body of work, Fougeron constantly sought the intimacy of the teen mind. “Teen Tribe explores these kinds of heightened states of mind…the whole brain is being reconfigured in a way,” says Fougeron. Teen Tribe is in the process of being published along with a companion film. Fougeron teaches at International Center of Photography and also independently leads master class retreats during the summer. The retreat is a one-week intensive during which artists examine their body of work and figure out how to take things to the next level. […]