Philippe Moisan

Philippe Moisan is a French photographer whose contemplative black-and-white work explores solitude, spiritual refuge, and the poetry of light. Born in the 1960s to two graphic artists in Paris, he grew up immersed in visual culture, surrounded by the drawings, photographs, and stories of artists like Bernard Gorsky, Claude Sauvageot, and Robert Doisneau.

After studying French literature and philosophy, Moisan moved to Berlin in 1984 during the Cold War. It was there, among winter train rides, Wagner's operas, and the icy countryside, that his lifelong fascination with silence and landscape took root — later rekindled in the romantic visions of Caspar David Friedrich.

He studied art history at the École du Louvre under scholars such as Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt and Pierre Amiet. His early career included lecturing in museums and guiding visitors through the intricacies of art and history, before shifting to a decade of fashion and lifestyle photography in Europe and the U.S.

A turning point came in São Paulo in 2001, where he lived for twelve transformative years. Immersed in the vertical chaos of the city, he turned his lens to anonymous figures and urban solitude. This experience laid the foundation for his personal phot...

INTERVIEW ON ARTISTIC INFLUENCES. (PART 1)

Interview by Anne-Line Roccati former editor in chief of daily French newspaper “Le Monde”.

How did you become a photographer ?

First of all there’s the reading I did as a child: Tintin, Blake and Mortimer, Moby Dick, The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, Michel Strogoff by Jules Verne. To that was added a travel-loving grandmother who inundated me with souvenirs: Chinese laquerware, Peruvian music boxes, statuettes of Easter Island. This awoke within me a curiosity for the unknown and for distant lands. So, since the age of 17, I’ve travelled. Sometimes taking my time, sometimes making lighting visits of no longer than a few days. Once I’d set off, everything fanned my dreams and aroused my curiosity: megalopolises, deserts, equatorial forests, societies, people. I need to see and feel, in order not to feel like a foreigner. When I discovered photography, it imposed itself upon me as a self-evident vector in this quest for the world.

You have lived for a long time in the open air. Has this changed the way you see landscapes ? How has this impacted on your work ?

Twenty-five years between the sky and the earth. My favourite smell was kerosene. My eyes lit up on arriving at Orly airp...

PARTICIPATIONS IN EVENTS, EXHIBITIONS AND PRESS.