Artist Bio
A French artist and photographer, Sébastien works primarily with analogue photography, which has been at the foundation of his artistic practice from the beginning. His images have been exhibited regularly in France and Italy, exploring recurring themes of memory and landscape—particularly the Mediterranean—and a desire to allow places to reveal their own emotional presence. Alongside photography, he makes films, most often in Super 8. Following Vercors (2021) and and the sea is ashen (2024), his third film, Where the Ocean Starts (2026), was shot on MiniDV. Each film continues to follow its own journey through international film festivals. He is also the author of eight books published by Stock and Actes Sud and previously taught philosophy at a French public high school. Selected exhibitions include Voies Off, Arles (2009); Le Bleu du Ciel, Lyon (2010); Former Museum of Painting, Grenoble (2011, 2012); XFrame Studio, Venice (2012); Galerie Le Lac Gelé, Nîmes (2012); and Présences Photographie, Montélimar (2024).
Statement
MALALONGUE
Malalongue is an ongoing photographic series.
« Echoes of things, caught in passing and held still, form a path — without epic direction: glimmers, scratches, the air of lines, between the lines.»
Jean-Christophe Bailly, Temps réel
Malalongue refers to a headland located at the southern tip of the island of Port-Cros, where I stayed as an artist-in-residence during quieter periods in 2025 — in November and February. I took time to revisit the other two Îles d’Or, Porquerolles and Le Levant, with the intention of photographing unspectacular scenes, aiming to create a kind of stationary fiction.
These three islands of the Var region, in the mediterranean sea, also shaped the landscapes of my childhood and teenage summers. When I return to them, I do not seek to define their contours. On the contrary, I hope that something within them eludes me — I long for a renewed radiance. And indeed, they never fail to expand.
This ongoing photographic series is accompanied by a text still in progress, provisionally titled The Summers of Fabio. As the title suggests, the book will offer a more sunlit and expansive counterpart to malalongue.
