Rising star of French art photography, Ouine, 38, is pupil of Irwin Pen and Richard Avedon. A series of Vietnamese photographs made him Hewlett Packard France foundation laureate in 1996. The next year brought him another highly sought award, the Villa Medicis hors les murs. The Kodak critics' prize jury made notice of him the same year.
Ouine joined the cohort of the world's best contemporary photographers with his project, Les Immortels-subtle portraiture of French Academy members. His book of the same name, put out in 1996, was tremendous success.
The young Frenchman proved his worth among the world's foremost portrait photographers with his next series, portraits of 20th century photography stars-Henri Cartier-Bresson, William Klein, Jean Lou Sieff, Irwin Pen and Richard Avedon, to name but few.
Portraits and Still-lifes, now on show in Russia, came next as fruit of Ouine's trips to Japan and Mali.
The Paris-based FIAC, one of the world's top-notch contemporary art fairs, is simultaneously offering his latest project, India, made this year.
Jean Baptiste Ouine never seeks to be striking, and never hunts for cheap effects. Concentrated on eternal human values, he metaphorises national culture and mentality in long-established art forms-the portrait and the still-life.
