Winners of the Picto Fashion Photography Award 2019

The jury this year was composed of Miren Arzaluz, director of the Palais Galliera; Simon Baker, director of the MEP; Benaît Baume, director of the Fisheye Magazine; the photographer François Huguier; and Pascale Arnaud, the 2017 Picto Award winner. They selected three photographers—two French and one Irish—who presented a fresh and daring new look at fashion photography.

First Prize: Adeline Care

The twenty-six-year-old French photographer’s series Aïthō (I burn) presents a narrative straddling fiction and reality. In Adeline Care’s images, a thin veil of mist covers the inhospitable landscape of Mount Etna and the wandering paths of a survivor. Using an aesthetic that draws on surrealism and abstraction, she reflects on the possibility of the extinction of the human species in an increasingly hostile environment. This is an original body of work with topical resonance.

Second Prize: Seán McGirr

On the Instagram page of the young Irish photographer Seán McGirr we discover some of his rare images, which evince a taste for masculinity. From the faces of young skateboarders in the 2nd Arrondissement in Paris to the youthful body of a Japanese model, McGirr captures the look of Generation Z with simplicity and spontaneity. His photography, direct and tender, abstains from spotlights and special effects.

Third Prize: Rosanna Lefeuvre

Rosanna Lefeuvre develops a hybrid artistic practice. By printing her images on fabric, she positions herself at the boundary between fashion design and photography. Her work constitutes an intelligent mise-en-abime that reinvents fashion photography. Lefeuvre’s silky pastel images reveal the artist’s attentiveness to materials and textures and an inventive approach to intimate photography that appeals to all the senses.

By Coline Olsina