His photographs combine a deep sense of composi-
tion with an aesthetic of the flux that is often com-
pared with Robert Frank. Widely represented in
many museum collections, he is a prolific author
who has never ceased producing exhibitions and
books, combining personal projects and assign-
ments for many institutions in France and Europe,
often in collaboration with a writer.
Plossu was born in 1945 in Dalat (Vietnam, then
French Indochina). He discovered photography with
his father when traveling with him to the Sahara in
1958, an experience which defined his life-long rela-
tionship between photography and space, more par-
ticularly the desert. In 1965, after three years of
studiesinParis,hetookatriptoMexicotovisit
relatives. There he traveled widely, even up to Cali-
fornia. Meeting a British ethnographic expedition to
Mexico’s Chiapas region he became their photogra-
pher, creating such images asPuerto Angel, 1965.
For 10 years (1967–1977), based in Paris, Plossu
traveled extensively to French regions and Europe; to
the United States in 1966–1967; India in 1970; in
Africa, Niger, and Morocco in 1975, and Senegal
and Egypt in 1977, and published reportages in both
photography magazines (Photo,Camera) and glossy
magazines (Re ́alite ́s,Partir,Atlas). Simultaneously he
developed his own projects, such as theSuburbanalist
series. In 1977 he settled in Taos, New Mexico, with
his American wife, Kathy Yount. The next eight years
(until 1985) will be his American—more specifically
New Mexican—and ‘‘desert’’ years, as well as the
beginning of his series on his own children (his son
Shane was born in 1982). He then worked almost
exclusively in black-and-white and with a 50 mm
lens, abandoning the wide angle lens of his earlier
years to the point he destroyed his wide-angle nega-
tives made in the 1970s. During the late 1970s and
early 1980s, he met countryman Gilles Mora. With
photographer and publisher Claude Nori, they
formed a dynamic group, deeply steeped both in
French classical culture and American photography
and pop cultures. Together they launched several
projects, particularlyLes Cahiers de la photographie
based on the model ofLesCahiersducine ́ma,the
first—and to date only—critical publication in French
on contemporary photography. The collaborations
and works of these individuals represented an impor-
tant step in the coming of age of French photography.
Plossu’s separation from his wife and subsequent
deportment from the United States in 1985 was a
traumatic event in his life that caused him to recon-
sider a certain ‘‘American model’’ that may have
characterized his earlier practice. It certainly rein-
forced his artistic creed and sensitivity. In 1988, a
major 25-year retrospective at the Muse ́e d’Art
moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou consecrated
his place in French photography. He was subse-
quently awarded the Grand Prix national de la
photographie, received the prestigious Villa-Medi-
cis-hors-les-murs fellowship to photograph India,
Turkey, and Mali. From 1989 to 1992, he lived in
Andalousia (Almeria) with his second wife, Fran-
c ̧oise Nun ̃ez, and their two children. Since 1992, he
has been living in La Ciotat. The Spanish and Med-
iterranean years were extremely productive. In the
20 years since his return to France, Plossu produced
a great many exhibitions, from new subjects to
revisiting his archive of images, and many books.
Most of these have been the result of commissions.
Although he now travels less, and almost exclu-
sively in near Europe, and works on some local
long term projects (as the restoration of the Villa
de Noailles in Hye`res, published in 2003), Plossu
still practices photography as a way of sharing the
emotion of space and discovery.
Plossu’s work is marked by a great continuity in
the construction of a personal world and an
extreme sensitivity to people and places translating
in images of great softness and sensuality. His now
40-year career is characterized by his many solid
friendships with other artists and photographers,
and his loves, particularly of his children. It is also
defined by his continuing study of the history of
painting as well as love of literature (Plossu exorts,
‘‘one must always read!’’) particularly such authors
as Balzac, Ce ́line, Malcom Lowry, Albert Cossery,
Michel Butor, Amin Maalouf, and the writers of
the Mediterranean.
Plossu’s main influence, however, is to be found
in the cinema (he was once called a ‘‘Nouvelle vague
photographer’’) that he discovered as a teenager
through the movies of such international directors
as Kenji Mizoguchi, Igmar Bergman, Theodore
Dreyer, Sergei Eisenstein, Nicholas Ray, and Luis
Bun ̃uel. Movies shaped his understanding of the
image well before he learned about the history of
photography—a rather standard phenomenon for a
French photographer of this time. This influence is
present in his blurred images, in his many pictures
made from moving vehicles, but also in his choice of
point of view and subjects. It marks his deep interest
in the question of time, as a sensitive and photo-
graphic issue.
Although influenced by film, in his photographs
Plossu never tells a story. Most of his images are in
fact best described as contrapuntal. Choosing banal
places and ‘‘non decisive moments’’ as he himself
calls them (and as opposed to the ideal presented by
Henri Cartier-Bresson of capturing ‘‘the decisive
moment’’) Plossu focuses on the surprise of thePLOSSU, BERNARD