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In the winter of 2002, Christophe Agou began documenting the lives of French family farmers living and working in the Forez region, which lies on the eastern side of the Massif Central. This is the region where he was born and lived until the age of 16, a region for which he still has a deep affection. Christophe traveled to the lesser-known parts of the region, where he felt inspired by the silence and moved by the authenticity and charisma of the people he encountered. Over time, and through the gradual process of building trust and friendship, the farmers and their families accepted him and allowed him to both photograph and film their daily existence. The work goes beyond just documenting their labor-intensive lives and present a deeper, more intimate portrait. For Christophe Agou, Face au Silence is a meditation on life and death as well as the silence and solitude that are ever-present in our lives.Biography:
Since the early 1990s, Christophe Agou has been building up a body of compelling photographs that take an allusive approach to the human condition. He is noted for his intimate and personal documentary-style black-and-white and colour photographs. Christophe had extended his expression into other media, always working intuitively, making assemblages and short films.Self-taught photographer, Christophe Agou grew up in a small town in the Forez region. He moved to New York in 1992 where he developed a love for the city and for photography. He began making photographs in the streets and within that work he evoked a sense of longing and isolation. He first came to prominence with his powerful photographs made in the New York City Subway, and published Life Below in 2004 (Quantuck Lane Press / W.W. Norton & Company).Agou’s work is held in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; The Akron Art Museum, Akron; Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona; The New-York Historical Society; The New York Public Library, New York City and Les Galeries Photo Fnac, France.In 2006, he was chosen as a finalist for both the prestigious W. Eugene Smith Award, and for le Prix de la Photographie de l’Académie des Beaux-Arts de Paris in 2008. He received a ‘Mention Spéciale‘ for Le Prix Kodak de la Critique Photographique in 2009. In 2010, Christophe Agou won the prestigious European Publishers Award for Photography for his project Face au Silence.