Member of the NUJ (National Union of Journalists) • Hans Lucas • CEO of Studio Dyscern
Biography.
Arnaud Fonquerne is a photographer devoted to human stories, and to the memory and resilience of societies in crisis. He brings the same narrative rigour to digital work through Studio Dyscern, which he founded to help committed changemakers build an online presence that truly reflects who they are.
The spark
Arnaud Fonquerne isn’t a photographer yet, not officially. He travels to the West Bank for a project that, at first, has nothing to do with a calling: documenting 20 years since the Oslo Accords, ratified in 1993 between Israel and Palestine. From this trip comes Broken Hopes, a black-and-white web documentary. It becomes the first chapter of a body of work that never stops.
What endures
Self-taught, a photographer since 2015, Arnaud has built his vision around a question that runs through all his projects: what becomes of a society when it fractures, and what does it keep in memory? From Potosí (Les fantômes de Potosí) to Paris (Nuit Debout, Chaleur Sociale), from the climate crisis (COP21, The Last Push) to the intimate (Windowed, Here but not there), his lens settles where tension, revolt or social imbalance leave their mark on faces.
The portrait becomes his tool of choice, not as an aesthetic, but as a documentary way of informing about the world. Each long-term project probes the historical or sociological weight of its subject, driven by one conviction: the human remains the most honest way into the collective.
Between journalism and artistic gesture
He never fully chooses between the two. Documenting to inform, yes, but also giving voice, sometimes in a dreamlike register, to what would otherwise stay silent. This deliberate tension between journalistic intent and artistic gesture shapes the way he tells memory and resilience.
Milestones
- Residencies
- Pavlikeni, Bulgaria, October 2020.
- Screenings
- Broken Hopes, screened at Visa pour l’Image, Perpignan, 2014.
- Awards
- Broken Hopes, AFD Nikon Award for Best Web Documentary, 2013.
- Collaborations
- Amnesty International France, Collectif Romeurope, CNews, e-artsup, European Implementation Network, France Inter, France Culture, Samusocial de Paris, Sciences et Avenir. 2013-2020.
- Workshop
- Documentary photography, Cédric Gerbehaye, Agence VU’.
Studio Dyscern
From image to experience
The same rigour, understanding a subject in depth before choosing how to tell it, also guides the other side of his work. For 15 years, Arnaud has moved between public-interest communication and the creation of interactive experiences. He enjoys immersing himself in content, understanding how it works, and imagining the best way to convey information to create experiences that carry meaning.
He has worked with the Agence Française de Développement, AIDES, Amnesty International, Action Against Hunger, La Cimade, Médecins du Monde, the Samusocial de Paris and many festivals. He also teaches at EMI and works regularly with social and solidarity economy organisations.
In 2014, he founded Dyscern to put emotion and storytelling at the centre of his projects. His goal: for every creation, whether a photograph or a digital experience, to do more than inform, and to tell a story.