BIOGRAPHY
Photography entered Antoine Schneck's life when, at the age of 12, he discovered an old kodak camera in a cupboard. A vocation was born and his heroes were therefore called Henri Cartier-Bresson, William Klein, Richard Avedon or Marc Riboud. He studied at the Louis Lumière film school.
It was only at the age of 30 that Antoine Schneck devoted himself fully and definitively to photography. From the outset, the portrait revealed itself as his favorite subject. Antoine Schneck worked in the view camera before adopting digital technology, whose extreme quality and perfect definition he appreciated.
His work therefore develops in series, over the course of travels, desires, projects, always under the sign of encounters. Antoine Schneck adopts the same approach each time. Far from any exoticism, his goal is to approach a face in the most direct way. His models, volunteers and consenting, are invited to take place in a tent of white fabric which diffuses the light evenly. Sitting on a chair in this completely neutral setting, the subject stands out against a black background while Antoine Schneck, invisible, operates from the outside, a hole in the fabric letting his camera lens through.
Close to traveling photographers, Antoine Schneck's device is however very different since the model finds himself alone, isolated from any context, without interaction with the outside world or even with the photographer. The goal of this total neutrality is to obtain from the character an extreme relaxation, a state of abandonment where it is no longer a question of posing, nor of composing an image of oneself. Patiently, Antoine Schneck waits and thus manages to capture this fleeting moment when the face at rest offers itself, gives itself for itself.
Similar to landscapes crossed by lines, fine lines and inhabited by the brilliance of a gaze, these faces, intense and all different, bear the trace of a story, of an individual journey. Floating on a black background, detached from their bodies, most often without accessories, these faces from the end of the world have the raw, expressive strength of the mask with the added dimension of the living, of the human.
EXHIBITIONS
2022
- Lancement de la collection de NFT Pixelophonie, en collaboration avec Danae.io
- La collection Bernard Magrez, Institut Bernard Magrez Bordeaux, France
2020
- Le Passeur, Galerie Berthet-Aittouarès, Paris, France
2019
- Antoine Schneck dans tous ses états. Les femmes, les hommes, les arbres, les voyages, Galerie Berthet-Aittouarès, Paris, France
2018
- Du rêve à la réalité, au cœur des montagnes Miao. Couleurs de Chine, DS World, Paris, France
- Du masque à l'âme, Centre d'Art La Confluence, Betton, France
- Les beautés singulières, galerie Berthet-Aittouarès, Paris, France
- Du masque à l'âme, Le Kiosque, Vannes, France
- Autophoto, Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, Paris, France
- Art Paris Art Fair, Africa Guest of Honor, Paris, France
2015
- Du Burkina Faso à l'Ethiopie et autres rencontres, Galerie Berthet-Aittouarès, Paris, France
- Antoine Schneck, Le Carmel, Tarbes, France
2014
- Le Musée Hermès, Maison Hermès, Shanghaï, Chine
2013
- Les Gisants, Monastère royal de Brou, Bourg-en-Bresse, France
2012
- Tsiganes en Roumanie, Fondation SAM, Paris, France
- Vendeurs de poules burkinabés, Gisants, Scaphandre et autres figures, Galerie Berthet-Aittouarès, Paris, France
2011
- Leur chien, galerie des illustres, Château de Beauregard, France
- Orangerie du Luxembourg, Luxembourg
2010
- Antoine Schneck, Galerie Berthet-Aittouarès, Paris, France
- Leur chien, Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, Paris, France
- Les Gisants de Saint-Denis, Château royal de la Cité de Carcassonne, France
- Les Gisants, Basilique cathédrale de Saint-Denis, Saint-Denis, France
2009
- Leur chien, Musée de la chasse et de la Nature, Paris, France
2008
- Antoine Schneck. Portraits d’Afrique, Parcours des Mondes, Galerie Berthet-Aittouarès, Paris, France
2007
- Du masque à l'âme, Antoine Schneck et arts d'Afrique noire, Montmorillon, France
- Formule 1, usine Ferrari, Marinello, Italie
2002
- Portrait de Placido Domingo, Façade de l’Opéra de Washington, Etats-Unis
2001
- Les Mariannes d’aujourd’hui, façade de l’Assemblée Nationale, Paris, France
- Tsiganes en Roumanie, Le Printemps-Haussmann, Paris, France
- Antoine Schneck. Photographies, Centres culturels français de Bucarest, Lasi, Timisoara (Roumanie), Kiev (Ukraine), Chisinau (Moldavie)