Yan Morvan

Yan Morvan is a French photographer, born in Paris in 1954. He lives and works in Paris.
His photographs have been acquired by many photographic collections in France (FNAC collections, CNAP, Army Museum ...) and abroad (Minneapolis Art Center, Walker Art Center, Moscow Multimedia Art Museum ...). He currently works on a project called "The French" with the support of the Ministry of Culture.

He has worked for a long time as a war photographer, travelling around the world to cover many conflicts of the second half of the 20th Century, an area in which he is recognized as one of the greatest specialists of his generation.

His war reports earned him a mention for the Robert Capa Award, for his work in Lebanon in 1983, two World Press Photo awards in 1984, and numerous awards from American journalism schools.
Yan Morvan has collaborated with leading international newspapers and there are numerous publications about his work.
BETWEEN WAR

As early as the 1970s, Yan Morvan's total commitment to social witness reveals his exceptional presence to the world. In the heat of the moment, he works on instinct, in direct contact, with flash, without being stunned, even if he will recognize, much later, that "hell has passed on him".

Yan Morvan’s work is permeated with the readings of Shakespeare, Kafka and Herodotus, documents the golden age of Pop culture, but also the phenomenon of urban tribes, the beginning of social unrest born of rootlessness. "I felt, that these were warning signs of urban chaos and the social disintegration we are witnessing today."

This contemporary way of contextualizing the action, of documenting the off-camera, from black and white to color, incorporating emotion and poetry, is rare. The French and international press are not mistaken in publishing this major French photographer’s work.

From the beginning, he covers the whole field of photography, from wars (Northern Ireland, Iran / Iraq, Lebanon, Rwanda, Kosovo ...) to portraiture, landscape, document. Transcending the boundaries between genres, dynamiting taboo and forbidden genres, it is at home with people of conviction, whether they are in the lumpen, or among the rich, whether they are victims of war or road accident victims, English punks or thatcherists. He uses all the techniques at his disposal, from silver and black to splendid color cibachrome, from Leica 24 x 36 to the Deardorff bedroom.

Today, these rarities, sometimes drawn from missing papers and chemistries, are heritage treasures, as his recent photographs of battlefield landscapes of great history will become, found throughout continents and eras and this awakens our consciousness.

Magali Jauffret




Group shows at Ceysson Gallery
Guerre(s), Paris
December 18, 2019 - February 01, 2020


1970s
• With Maurice Lemoine, Le Cuir et le Baston, Editions Ailleurs 1976

1990s
• Le Photojournalisme, Contrejour, 1994
• With Patrick Frilet, Photojournalisme, Le Guide, CFD, 1995
• With Jean-Marc Barbieux, Mondosex, Contrejour, 1995
A small catalog raisonné of sexual behavior at the dawn of the 21st century,

2000s
• With Jean-Marc Barbieux, Gang, Marval Editions, 2000
Photographic quest that began in 1972 with a report on the Hells Angels and continues in 2016 with Gangs Story
• Photojournalisme, CFPJ, Victoires Editions, 2000
• With Jean-Marc Barbieux and Sylvie Huet, BodMod, Marval, 2003
• Photojournalisme, Victoires Editions, 2008

Years 2010
• With Kizo, Gangs Story, The Book Factory, 2012
• Champs de bataille, Éditions Photosynthèses, 2015 A monumental photographic report on the battlefields where the great decisive battles of all times and countries took place.
• Blousons noirs, The book factory, 2016
• Battlefields, Abbeville Press, 2017
• With Pierre Mikailoff, Race with the Devil, Serious Publishing Publishing, 2018
• Bobby Sands, Belfast Mai 1981, The Book Factory, 2018
• Liban, Photosynthesis Publishing, 2019
• Les années de fer, Serious Publishing Publishing 2019.
• BKK, Nueve Editions, 2019