Yann Rabanier smoothly shoots busy people. Thanks to a vivid and unique imagination, in all his portraits, he catches the emotion, the magical moment when models just let it go. He patiently waits until stress leaves.

In often quirky compositions, in which light and framing are turned into real actors, far from stilted clichés, Yann Rabanier allows himself the freedom to work on his pictures even on the festival site, though he had prepared them beforehand – through sketches, drawings and collages. It’s just as if the picture imprinted itself on his retina before he shot it.

For the Fondation d’entreprise Martell, this project was born out of a meeting and a desire – the desire to find one another again by the Atlantic Ocean for this essential musical event. For Nathalie Viot, the Foundation director, it felt natural that Yann Rabanier should be invited: “He looks at people in a way no one does. Yann Rabanier is a free photographer, he refuses any compromise. This is exactly the artistic approach we stand for.”

The exhibition takes place in La Rochelle before it comes to the Cognac Foundation, in the spring of 2020.

Yann Rabanier is a French portrait photographer who was born in 1980 in Marmandes. He graduated from the Toulouse ETPA and was laureate of the 2007 Grand Prix ETPA. He is represented by the French photography agency Modds.

He often works with French and international press (Le Monde, Vanity Fair, Les Inrocks, The New York Times …). He covered the 2011 primaries of the Socialist Party for the Liberation newspaper. Since many years, he covers the Cannes Festival for Telerama. He shoots record sleeves for several artists from different labels.