"INNOCENCE #26" Photograph - Limited Edition of 25

Laurent Elie Badessi is a Franco American fine art photographer born in France. He belongs to a family with three generations of photographers. From an early age, this enabled him to explore and appreciate the art of photography.

After studying language and communication sciences at Université des Lettres d’Avignon, Badessi enrolled in a photography course at Université de Paris VIII. Curious about the psychological aspect in the interaction that occurs between a photographer and his sitter during a photo session, he decided to base his M.A. thesis on that subject. To explore this phenomenon further, he used the technique of “La photographie négociée” (The Negotiated Photography) and spent several months in Niger, Africa taking photographs of isolated tribes that had never (or very rarely) been exposed to the medium. For this project titled “Ethnological Fashion Photography”, he received the prominent “Bourse de l’aventure” (The Adventure Grant) among several other grants and awards.

Badessi started his career in Paris and continued working abroad before moving to the United States in the early 1990s.

After spending ten years focusing on the human figure, Badessi’s work SKIN, which was compiled in a book of the same name, was internationally released in early 2000 by the prestigious Swiss publisher Edition Stemmle. The book contains introduction by Sondra Gilman, Founder and Chairperson of the photography committee at the Whitney Museum.

In 2004, Badessi was chosen by the company Charles Jourdan to produce a series of photographs for their advertising campaign. Because of the emblematic relationship between the medium of photography and this brand, Badessi accepted the project. Like photographer Guy Bourdin, who helped build that relationship thanks to his iconic images, Badessi was also given carte blanche. To bring his own vision to life, he played with fetishism and mythological symbolism. He created memorable visuals that are in the permanent collection of Le Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, Louvre.

At the peak of the American war in Iraq, Badessi created American Dream, This is not a dream (2006), a powerful series of portraits based on the propagandist campaigns elaborated by the army to attract new recruits during the war. In 2011 American Dream, This is not a dream was selected for the prestigious “Arte Laguna Prize” and shown at the Venice Arsenale.

Innocence (2009-Present) and Dreaming Marilyns (2012-13) followed.