FRANÇOIS HALARD
PHOTOGRAPHER
FRANÇOIS HALARD
One of the most prolific and celebrated interior and architectural photographers of our time, François Halard is widely known for capturing the world’s most beautiful homes and the people who inhabit them. With an unparalleled sensibility that is at once old-world elegant and eclectic, his work is accessible, personal and instantly recognizable.
Having grown up the child of highly sophisticated antique dealers in Paris and living from an early age with objects of beauty, they form part of his DNA, and it was perhaps inevitable that he would go on to work in the field of art. A perfect amalgam of the modern and the classical, a powerful union of the then and the now, Halard is one of today’s most sought-after practitioners of his craft.
One of the most prolific and celebrated interior and architectural photographers of our time, François Halard is widely known for capturing the world’s most beautiful homes and the people who inhabit them. With an unparalleled sensibility that is at once old-world elegant and eclectic, his work is accessible, personal and instantly recognizable.
Having grown up the child of highly sophisticated antique dealers in Paris and living from an early age with objects of beauty, they form part of his DNA, and it was perhaps inevitable that he would go on to work in the field of art. A perfect amalgam of the modern and the classical, a powerful union of the then and the now, Halard is one of today’s most sought-after practitioners of his craft.
“His work has a painterly effect. It’s as if he captures the emotion, the vibrations, inherent in the space, but also, and one might argue equally, his own appreciation of it, his own feelings.”
Editorial
A frequent contributor to Vogue, T Magazine, WSJ, Architectural Digest, W Magazine, M le Monde and Arles Magazine for over 30 years, Halard has photographed images of the glorious homes of the most important tastemakers, artists, and designers of the twentieth century: Axel Vervoordt, Roger Vivier, Richard Avedon, the Duchess of Devonshire, Julian Schnabel, Schiaparelli, Carlo Mollino, Balthus, Coco Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, and many more.
Portraiture
One of Halard’s hallmarks as a photographer is his gift for creating an air of effortless elegance in his portraits of both people and houses. His signature vignettes capture the most telling details of a life well lived. Through his images, he brings intimacy to the grandest of subjects and reveals the intrinsic beauty of the simplest of gestures. The results are meticulously captured portraits and interiors that offer just as much insight into the owners and their lives as a formal family portrait might.
“I’m always in search of something more than just an apartment. Something really inspirational. Something that means something. I like to be the translator, to give people a chance to see these extraordinary places through photography.”
Advertising
Having established himself as a fixture in editorial interiors, Halard has gone on to photograph extraordinary advertising campaigns for the home furnishings collections of storied fashion houses including Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren, among others. These inspiring images explore, interpret and embed a brand’s DNA to maximize each campaign’s impact with consumers across print, digital, and social media platforms.
“The duality of his work is that it records beauty and makes beauty anew. For me, this makes his a unique and sentimental voice in the increasingly scientific realm of contemporary photography.”
Retail Environments
Endlessly inspired by spaces, Halard’s career capturing the exquisite homes and studios of iconic creatives has naturally progressed into photographing retail environments for luxury brands’ flagship stores including Balenciaga (Paris, Miami), Bottega Veneta Home (Milan), and The Row (New York, London). Halard’s imprint is everywhere, having set the new standard for retail public relations and collateral imagery among the world’s most discerning brands and creative directors.
Hospitality
Focusing his formidable influence on the world’s most mesmerizing spaces, Halard’s unmatched eye and ambition have organically led him to projects in the hospitality world, including hotels, restaurants, and even co-working locations.
Recent projects have included the Hotel Peter and Paul in New Orleans, a historic church, school house, rectory and convent reborn as a luxurious hotel; André Balazs’s Chiltern Firehouse, a luxury hotel and restaurant in a former fire station dating from the 1880s in London’s now-fashionable Marylebone district; the Roxy Hotel in New York’s TriBeCa neighborhood; and a multi-phase global interiors project for WeWork.
Exhibitions / Curation
Having set new standards for sumptuous, intimate architectural photography, Halard was invited to be the guest Curator of Design Miami/ Basel, where his solo exhibition ‘About Time’ featured 111 prints from his own archive, each interpreting the given theme of ‘time’ in its own way. Beyond the obvious practices of patience exercised by the photographer—waiting for a garden to mature, the roses to reach peak bloom, the perfect afternoon light to wash over a bedroom—the story of timing was told by Halard in many ways.
“Halard’s work has as much in common with painting as it does with photography. His images are personal impressions of the places they record – never literal or clinical, they are always nuanced. The particular atmospheres of his photographs...have made him the most accomplished chronicler of interiors, architecture and gardens of our time.”
Other solo exhibitions at institutions and galleries have included Thoronet Abbey, Musée d’art de Toulon, France; Post Gallery, Tokyo; Sotheby’s, London; Galerie Demisch Danant, New York; Villa Noailles, France; Galerie 111, France; Librairie Yvon Lambert, France; Robert Morat Gallery, Germany; Valérie Bach Gallery, Belgium and more.
“When you surround yourself with beauty, it helps you go on. Beauty is medicine for the soul.”
FRANÇOIS HALARD
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