Frédéric David French, b. 1969

Frédéric David is a French photographer, born in 1969, who divides his time between Paris and Biarritz. Over the course of twenty-six years working alongside couturier Karl Lagerfeld, he has forged a singular path in contemporary photography, where the portrait becomes at once a vestige and a palimpsest. Rooted in his close connection with the world of fashion, his work explores memory and transience, capturing the fleeting aura of a figure or the intensity of a silhouette. In doing so, he lends lasting resonance to fashion images that are by nature ephemeral and volatile, elevating them into enduring visual relics.

Alongside his collaborations with major fashion houses, David develops a personal, figurative practice in which each image is weathered, altered, sometimes partly erased. Through a delicate transfer process, the original print is dissolved and veiled, uncovering a reality that feels both fragile and floating. The fragmented image is then scanned and revealed on fine art paper, where David adds a distinctive final gesture: a thick coat of varnish applied by hand. This painterly touch gives the surface of the photograph an unexpected texture, evoking the patina and material presence of Renaissance canvases.

Working in large format further magnifies this effect, turning the photographic surface into a space where the traces and murmurs of the subject endure, drawing viewers into the layered presence of each impression, painstakingly crafted by the artist himself.