Stéphane Couturier

Architectural photography had mainly had a professional and functional purpose until, in the 1990s, it began to be seen as a worthy artistic subject. Couturier (b. 1957, Paris, France), is based in the city where he was born, and has devoted his oeuvre to it.

Like his German colleague Andreas Gursky, Couturier opts for a formal and conceptual approach in which he focuses on architectonic structures. His compositions are often tightly framed, eliminating sky and horizon. The use of a large format camera enables him to produce razor-sharp photos which do full justice to architectural details.

Art photography had initially had been defined by the ‘pure’ craftsmanship of working with light-sensitive emulsions, photographic paper and printing in the darkroom, and at first Couturier devotes himself to this analogue photography. Later in his career he commences to apply digital image manipulation.