Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1957, he lives and works in Paris. After his first exhibition in 1994 at the Polaris Gallery (Paris), Stéphane Couturier found immediate success with a series of photographs entitled “Urban Archaeology” (the title of the first series).
In the tradition of Charles Scheeler, the Bechers, Thomas Struth, Beat Streuli (et al.), Couturier likes to capture urban development and the transformations of buildings since the 19th century. His objective is “to question our perception of the urban environment and its various territories, which more often than not are just segmented areas and telescoped shapes”.
This approach quickly brought him offers of exhibitions in America and Europe, and a broad clientele, both private and public – he has a number of works in French museums. Produced in a darkroom, Stéphane Couturier’s work focuses on construction sites, building facades and other areas ignored by urban planners. The photographer elegantly reveals the “guts of the city”; those of Berlin, Dresden, Paris or more recently Havana (a series widely presented in art fairs in 2006). Stéphane Couturier has received much public funding and many commissions (the National Centre for the Visual Arts in 1996, the Ville de Paris grant for parks and gardens in 1998, and for a work in Moscow the following year). In 2003, he was awarded the Niepce Prize.
