alain sabatier

Alain Sabatier (born 1945, Grasse) has spent over sixty years exploring photographic imagery through a painter’s eye. Initially drawn to painting, he turned to color photography in 1959—an uncommon choice at the time. His work gained recognition in 1966 in the United States, where the Museum of Modern Art in New York showcased his innovative slide shows. Awarded the Fondation de la Vocation prize in 1968, he earned his degree from the École Nationale de Photographie et de Cinématographie Louis Lumière in 1969. In the 1970s, he turned to ethnology and heritage, producing significant black-and-white documentary work in Grasse. As head of the municipal photo library, he curated exhibitions on historical photographers, notably Charles Nègre. Since the 1990s, he has explored video, continuing to examine (through a cyclical, poetic approach) the relationship between image and reality.