Alain Schwarzstein is a French photographer and director, born in Algiers in 1954. He left school at a relatively young age and held several odd jobs before turning to professional photography. He then moved into audiovisual media, directing documentaries and television films, with some twenty productions and thirty screenplays to his credit. Alain Schwarzstein is also an author, notably of novels. He is married and lives far from London.
His artistic approach draws on this dual experience in film and photography: he sees the photographic image as a means of expressing emotion, similar to that sought in cinema, but concentrated in the moment the picture is taken.
Alain Schwarzstein’s photography is characterised by an obsession with the human face and body. For more than forty years, he has devoted himself almost exclusively to these subjects: children, elderly people, men and women, naked or scarred bodies, often captured in frames that question the presence and expression of the subject. This work focuses less on context or environment than on the emotion captured in the gaze or posture of the model, seeking to “capture an emotion whose nature he sometimes does not know”.
Technically speaking, Alain Schwarzstein practises contemporary artistic photography that often combines classic studio portraiture approaches with freer experimentation outdoors. Here are the key elements of his technique:
Focus on the human subject: his work focuses on faces and bodies as the main elements of the image, seeking to create a deep emotional connection with the viewer.
Experimentation with form: he repeats similar images in “multiple incarnations”, exploring different ways of representing the same human motif, rather than aiming for a strictly documentary representation.
Studio and outdoors: Alain Schwarzstein works in a studio, where he can control the lighting and posing, but he says he sometimes feels “lost outdoors”, suggesting that he does not hesitate to incorporate contextual elements into certain series.
Fine art prints: some of his works are produced as high-quality pigment prints (“fine art pigment”), with certificates of authenticity and limited editions, positioning his work in the contemporary photographic art market.
Overall, his practice lies at the intersection of portraiture, emotional immersion and conceptual photography, prioritising the expressive quality and presence of the subject over purely technical effects.
