Grace and Fire

Born in Paris in 1954, Gérard Uféras first picked up a camera at the tender age of eight, and throughout his childhood he pursued the two great passions - photography and art - which were to define his career. In 1984 he began to work regularly for the French newspaper Libération, which published many of his photographs and organized the first exhibition of his work. In 1986 he was involved in the creation of the photographers' agency Vu, while in 1993 at another agency, Rapho, he met Willy Ronis, who with Henri Cartier-Bresson and André Kertész was to influence his subsequent work. Another of his great loves was opera and the theatre, resulting in publications and exhibitions such as Un fantôme à l'opéra (on Europe's greatest opera houses) and Un pas vers les étoiles (on ballet at the Paris Opéra). After a series of immensely successful exhibitions in some of the most prestigious locations - including the Maison Européenne de la Photographie and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France - in 2023 Gérard Uféras was made a chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and his work entered the collections of the Médiathèque du patrimoine et de la photographie (MPP), the home of France's photographic heritage.