About Jean-François Lepage

Claudia – Laura Urbinati Ad campaign, 1987

Claudia – New-York Woman magazine, 1987

Self-Portrait with Dorothée – Vogue UK, 1996

Michelle, 1985 – Le Défilé, Régine Chopinot

Claudia – Laura Urbinati Ad campaign, 1987

Lauren – It’s Rouge magazine, 2003

Jean-François Lepage was born in Paris, France in 1960. His photography first appeared in the magazine Depeche Mode in 1981 and he held his first personal exhibition in 1983. In the 90s, Lepage dedicated himself to painting while continuing his photographic experiments. Returning to fashion photography at the beginning of the 21st century, his timeless uncanny images appeared in numerous international publications and were the subject of an exhibition in 2013 at the 28th Hyères International Festival of Fashion and Photography. MOONLIGHT ZOO, Lepage’s first monograph was released in 2015 and shows a selection of his photographs published in magazines from 1983 to present (Prestel Publishing). Since 2014, Jean-François Lepage has devoted himself exclusively to fine art photography and painting. He develops Genèse (The Recycle Project), reinterpreting films and photographic prints from his archives. The first opus Prelude has been completed in 2017 and pieces from the series were exhibited in Paris, Amsterdam, Brugge, Liège, Istanbul and London. A selection of hand painted chromogenic and silver gelatin prints from the second opus Zombie were presented in September 2019 at Unseen Amsterdam and exhibited in March 2020 at TOBE Gallery – Budapest.

Genèse (The Recycle Project)

Genèse opus II, Zombie at TOBE gallery. Budapest, March 2020

Opus I – Prélude (2014-2017)

Opus II – Zombie (2018-2020)

Opus III – Opium (2019-2020)

Opus IV – Cent vingt-neuf jours sur terre (2020-2021)

Opus V – Alpha Lyrae (me or vega) (2020-2022)

Opus VI – Zombie II (2022-2024)

Opus VII – Empreinte (2019-2021)

Opus VIII – Variations (2017-2022)

Opus IX – Capharnaüm (2014-2024)

Jean-François Lepage is represented in Budapest by TOBE Gallery
Updates about Art and Photography fairs participations will be posted on Instagram

Zombie picturaux et autres expériences plastiques
By Lou Tsatsas published in Fisheye magazine, Sept 2021

Extract from GUP Magazine interview, March 2020

ZOMBIE is the second part of your ‘Recycle Project’ which you initially started in 2014. How does it differ to the first part PRELUDE (2014-2017) and is this project now finished?

I don’t know when my ‘Recycle Project’ will end, however, I know that it is far from being finished¹. The project should consist of seven to ten opuses and I am currently working on four of them in parallel. When I started working on my first opus, ‘Prelude’, I needed to refresh my mind and change my working method after fifteen consecutive years of fashion photography – just about the right time. In fashion photography, there is always time’s imperatives, this no longer exists when one devotes oneself to pure artistic work. But strangely it was not so simple to get used to taking the time necessary again. It took me two years to find sensations similar to those I had known during my years as a painter in the 90s. ‘Prelude’ and ‘Zombie’ are very different series, and not only because of the technical approach. I would say that ‘Prelude’ is a synthesis of my intimate relationship with the photographic film, negative or positive – the film’s gelatin, its skin. I think that in a sense this series is a bit nostalgic. It is the first goodbye to my main way of practicing photography since the mid-80s. With ‘Zombie’, I found some forgotten sensations of the unknown, a little more freshness too, and a sense of play. My ‘Recycle Project’ is without a doubt a testament. Once completed, I would certainly explore very different horizons.

1. I started to practice photography when I was fourteen and it has been a real passion for many years. I recently made the decision that my project Genèse, started and pursued since 2014, would be my last photographic work as well as the last project that I will carry out under my birth name, Jean-François Lepage. It’s time for me to explore new lands and changing my signature seems like a good start.

Genèse (The Recycle Project) should be completed by the end of 2024 and will consist of nine opuses. Informations about upcoming events or exhibitions will be notified and updated on jeanfrancoislepage.com and Instagram. Jean-François Lepage – Sep 2021

Opus I – Prélude (2014-2017)
Opus II – Zombie (2018-2020)
Opus III – Opium (2019-2020)
Opus IV – Cent vingt-neuf jours sur terre (2020-2021)
Opus V – Alpha Lyrae (me or vega) (2020-2022)
Opus VI – Zombie II (2022-2024)
Opus VII – Empreinte (2019-2021)
Opus VIII – Variations (2017-2022)
Opus IX – Capharnaüm (2014-2024)

Jean-François Lepage is represented in Budapest by TOBE Gallery
Updates about Art and Photography fairs will be posted on Instagram
Website: (Fr) | Contact: lepage.info@gmail.com

Zombie picturaux et autres expériences plastiques
By Lou Tsatsas published in Fisheye magazine, Sept 2021

Extract from GUP Magazine interview, March 2020

‘ZOMBIE’ is the second part of your ‘Recycle Project’ which you initially started in 2014. How does it differ to the first part ‘Prelude’ (2014-2017) and is this project now finished?

I don’t know when my ‘Recycle Project’ will end, however, I know that it is far from being finished.¹ The project should consist of seven to ten opuses and I am currently working on four of them in parallel. When I started working on my first opus, ‘Prelude’, I needed to refresh my mind and change my working method after fifteen consecutive years of fashion photography – just about the right time. In fashion photography, there is always time’s imperatives, this no longer exists when one devotes oneself to pure artistic work. But strangely it was not so simple to get used to taking the time necessary again. It took me two years to find sensations similar to those I had known during my years as a painter in the 90s. ‘PRELUDE’ and ‘ZOMBIE’ are very different series, and not only because of the technical approach. I would say that ‘PRELUDE’ is a synthesis of my intimate relationship with the photographic film, negative or positive – the film’s gelatin, its skin. I think that in a sense this series is a bit nostalgic. It is the first goodbye to my main way of practicing photography since the mid-80s. With ‘ZOMBIE’, I found some forgotten sensations of the unknown, a little more freshness too, and a sense of play. My ‘Recycle Project’ is without a doubt a testament. Once completed, I would certainly explore very different horizons.

About the past (1983-2013)

Le diable pleure des larmes d’acier, 1992 – first part of a triptych

Jean-François Lepage’s photography is produced on a knife’s edge: after the photo shoot, the photographer’s hand often comes back to deconstruct and interfere with the body’s anatomy, cutting the negative to build a new, multiple image. The artist willingly speaks of « his material », not so much about the realm of reality, but the material of the negative or positive itself; hands in the gelatin, like a paintbrush in oil and pigments. From these cut, multiplied, recomposed faces and bodies, a complex identity suddenly rises to the surface. The character’s individuality emerges and creates an oscillatory wave that disturbs the peaceful surface of the image, causing it to waiver between seduction and repulsion, sophistication and brutality. This painter-photographer proclaims his love for colour and, though the palette has gradually changed over the decades, there is one colour that returns constantly as a leitmotif. It is a fiery, blood-coloured red, the colour of life flowing out of the engraved surface of the image.

Raphaëlle Stopin
Extract from Open-heart Surgery, essay
published in the catalogue of the 28th Hyères Festival
and the monograph MOONLIGHT ZOO – Prestel Publishing, May 2015.

Dorothée – Gigi Calo, 1993
FW 93 collection

Eva – Lei magazine, 1985

Untitled, 1990
pencil on paper

Dorothée – View on Colour magazine, 1999

L’Ange, le Diable, la Reine, Le couteau et la Mort, 1993

Man without hands – Another Man magazine, 2006

Kirsten, 1990 – Jil Sander
FW 90 Ad campaign
(unpublished photograph)

Untitled – Vogue Pelle, 1985

Untitled, early 80s – ink on paper

Jeune Femme schizophrène, 1987 – pencil on paper

Leslie – Per Lui magazine, 1984

Nina Hagen – music album covers, 1989

Mission DATAR « les Quatre Saisons du Territoire », 1988

Untitled – Jill magazine, 1983

Claudia – Jill magazine, 1984

Untitled – Lei magazine, 1984

Danseuse 3, 1987 – pencil on paper

Couleurs, 1989 – pencil and gouache on paper

VII, 1985-2018 – 8X10 series

Metamorphosis I, 1997 – Masaki Matsushima
SS 98 Ad campaign & catalogue

Metamorphosis II, 1997 – Masaki Matsushima
SS 98 Ad campaign & catalogue

Metamorphosis III, 1997 – Masaki Matsushima
SS 98 Ad campaign & catalogue

Untitled, 1997 – Masaki Matsushima
SS 98 Ad campaign & catalogue

Lia, 1997 – Masaki Matsushima
SS 98 Ad campaign & catalogue

Untitled, 1996
mixed media on wood
1400 x 1000 mm

Untitled, 1990
mixed media on wood
1650 x 1100 mm

Untitled, 1990
pencil on paper
650 x 500 mm

Dorothée – Dorothée Perret, 1999
SS 99 collection

Untitled – Vogue Pelle, 1985
(unpublished photograph)

Untitled – Repetto Ad campaign, 1988

Untitled, 1993-1996
photographic film, tape,
elastic and staple

Untitled, 1993-1996
photographic film, tape,
gelatin and staple

Untitled, 1993-1996
photographic film, staple,
sewing thread and silicon
(detail)

Dovile – 7000 magazine, 2013

Claudia – Lei magazine, 1985

Felix, 1993

Hell & Paradise – Spoon magazine, 1998

Ink on paper with Nuage Lepage, 2007

Dovile – 7000 magazine, 2013

Art Paris Art Fair 2016 – Grand Palais, Paris

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2023 – 8×10, Instants damnés – Galerie Madé / Paris, France
2020 – Zombie (Genèse opus II) – TOBE Gallery / Budapest, Hungary
2016 – Prelude (Genèse opus I) – Brugge Photo Festival / 44 Gallery / Brugge, Belgium
2016 – Prelude (Genèse opus I) – Fotoistanbul / International Photography Festival / Istanbul, Turkey
2016 – Solo Show – Art Paris Art Fair / Grand Palais / Galerie Madé / Paris, France
2015 – Prelude (Genèse opus I) – The Ravestijn Gallery / Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2015 – Prelude (Genèse opus I) – Galerie Madé / Paris, France
2014 – Memories From The Future – Festival International of Photography / Rishon Lezion, Israël
2014 – Memories From The Future – Galerie Madé / Paris, France
2013 – Memories From The Future – 28th Festival International of Fashion and Photography / Hyères, France

Selected Group Exhibitions

2023 – FCKN LOVE – TOBE Gallery / Budapest, Hungary
2021 – The Constructed Image – The Ravestijn Gallery / Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2016 – Transcendent Diy – Biennale De L’image Possible / Liège, Belgium
2016 – L’autre Visage – Centre Photographique / Pôle Image / Rouen, France
2016 – The Summer Show – The Ravestijn Gallery / Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2012 – Color – Camera Work Gallery / Berlin, Germany

Art & Photography Fairs

2023 – Paris Photo Fair – Solo Show – TOBE Gallery / Paris, France / (Nov 9-12, 2023)
2021 – Parallel Vienna – TOBE Gallery / Vienna, Austria (Sept 7-14, 2021)
2019 – Unseen – TOBE Gallery / Amsterdam, The Netherlands (Sept 20-22, 2019)
2016 – Art Paris Art Fair – Galerie Madé / Grand Palais / Paris, France (Mar 31-Apr 3, 2016)
2015 – Unseen – Galerie Madé / Amsterdam, The Netherlands (18-20 Sept 2015)
2015 – Photo London – The Ravestijn Gallery / London, United Kingdom (May 21-24, 2015)
2014 – Unseen – Galerie Madé / Amsterdam, The Netherlands (Sept 18-21, 2014)

Articles & Interviews