Bernard Faucon

Bernard Faucon (b. 1950) is a French photographer and writer known for his highly staged and cinematic images. Considered a key figure in the “staged photography” movement, he created fictional worlds using mannequins and real people to explore themes of childhood, memory, and innocence. His early, career-defining series, Les Grandes Vacances (The Summer Holidays), used mannequins of boys in various bucolic settings to evoke a world of eternal summer and ambiguous play. After a prolific period of creation, Faucon famously announced in the mid-1990s that he had stopped taking photographs, turning his focus instead to writing and reflection. His work remains influential and is held in the permanent collections of major museums worldwide, including the Guggenheim Museum.