moscow photographer russia editorial portrait
Moscow | Paris | Berlin
Bio
French photographer Patrick Wack (b. 1979) grew up in the suburbs of Paris. After a career in sports and studies in economics and foreign languages in Paris, the US and Sweden, he left a job in Berlin to start again as a photographer in China. Fully self-taught, he was based in Shanghai from 2006 to 2017 where he worked freelance for international publications and commercial clients. He also focuses on long-term projects mixing the traditional documentary approach with a more subjective and contemplative storytelling. His work has addressed topics such as the repression of minorities, urban mutations, war-time Russia, the emergence of China and post-conflict reconstruction. His stories have been published in Time magazine, Geo France, M le Monde, The Sunday Times and National Geographic among many others. His work has been exhibited in solo shows in the US, France, China, Germany, and Singapore. Among other awards, he was a PDN photo annual winner and French Bourse du Talent laureate in 2018, has received 1st prize at the KL Photo Awards and was a laureate of the Albert-Kahn grant in 2019 and of the CNAP grant for documentary photography in 2020. He is currently based in Moscow and his first monograph DUST was released early October 2021 with André Frère Editions. He is also the cofounder of the Inland photo cooperative gathering 14 international documentary photographers and a 2022 National Geographic Explorer.
He is fluent in French, English, German, proficient in Mandarin Chinese and is starting to speak Russian.
Editorial (selection)
National Geographic (USA)
TIME magazine (USA)
The New York Times (USA)
The Sunday Times (UK)
M Le Monde (France)
The British Journal of Photography (UK)
The Wall Street Journal (USA)
Geo (France)
Les Inrockuptibles (France)
L’Equipe magazine (France)
Le Monde (France)
Le Figaro (France)
L'Obs (France)
Libération (France)
Télérama (France)
National Geographic (China)
Forbes magazine (USA)
The Monocle (UK)
The Good Life (France)
New York Times Travel magazine (China)
Vanity Fair (UK)
Life magazine (China)
Vogue (China)
Le Pélerin magazine (France)
Travel & Leisure (china)
NRC handelsblad & het blad (Netherlands)
Courrier International (France)
Le Point (France)
Papiers (France)
The New Internationalist (UK)
Bloomberg Quicktakes (USA)
Amica (Italy)
Cicero (Germany)
Paper Magazine (USA)
The South China Morning Post (HK)
Bilanz (Germany)
Capital (France)
Awards & Grants
2022 Grant "Radioscopie de la France" - French Ministry of Culture
2022 National Geographic Society Grant - Level 1
2020 CNAP Documentary Photography Grant (French National Center for Visual Arts)
2020 International Photography Award - honourable mention
2020 Finalist Dorothea Lange – Paul Taylor Prize
2020 Relay Prize – Best reportage of the year (GEO France)
2020 CNAP grant for documentary photography - laureate
2020 Sony World Photo Awards - shortlist
2019 Kuala Lumpur International Photo Awards - shortlist
2019 Albert Kahn Museum Grant - laureate
2018 Bourse du Talent - landscape category special prize
2018 Boutographies Festival (France) - public prize
2018 PDN Photo Annual - personal work category winner
2018 Gomma Grant - shortlist
2017 Bourse du Talent - reportage category finalist
2014 Kuala Lumpur International Photo Awards - 1st prize
2013 Bourse du Talent - portrait category shortlist
Gallery Solo Exhibitions
2019 Atelier für Fotografie (Berlin Germany)
2018 Galerie im Künstlerhaus (Leonberg Germany)
2018 Pictura Gallery (Bloomington USA)
2016 Düo Gallery (Paris France)
2015 Mo-Industries Gallery (Singapore)
2015 Mo-Industries Gallery (Berlin Germany)
2014 Art+ Gallery (Shanghai China)
Festival Exhibitions
2022 Screening at Jakarta International Photo Festival (Indonesia)
2022 Solo Show at Festival Images Singulières (Sète, France)
2022 Collective Show at PhotoDoc festival with Gallery Basia Embiricos (Paris, France)
2021 Solo Show at Atelier Bergère (Paris, France)
2020 BCK Festival "Balkans Today" (Athens Greece)
2019 Promenades Photographiques (Vendôme France)
2018 Bourse du Talent (National Library France)
2018 OFF festival (Bratislava Slovakia)
2018 Visa pour l'Image (screening - Perpignan France)
2018 Les Nuits de Pierrevert (screening - Pierrevert France)
2018 Les Boutographies (Montpellier France)
2017 Cui Zhenkuan Art Museum (Xi'an China)
2017 Itinéraires des Photographes Voyageurs (Bordeaux France)
2014 Kuala Lumpur Photo Awards (KL Malaysia)
Collections
National Collection of the National Library François Miterrand (Paris France)
Online Publications & Interviews
2022 Analog Forever | DUST book review
2022 TV5 Monde | "Dust" du photographe Patrick Wack: au coeur du Xinjiang, théâtre d'un nettoyage ethnique
2022 Republik | Wo Endet Europa?
2022 Arte | "Dust", les ouïghours de Chine photographiés par Patrick Wack
2022 Arte | Patrick Wack, photographe de la culture ouïghoure
2022 Le Monde | A Kalouga, en Russie, les ouvriers automobiles sentent venir le vent des sanctions
2022 Le Monde | En Russie, le vieil homme qui peignait la paix
2022 L'Obs | Poutine a fait de nous des zombies
2022 Vision(s) Podcast | Patrick Wack
2021 China File | Vanishing Point, Patrick Wack's photographs of Xinjiang
2021 Aesthetica Magazine | DUST
2021 Radio Free Asia | DUST
2021 Blind Magazine | Patrick Wack's exploration of the decried East-Turkestan
2021 Reporterre | La Chine dévaste l'environnement du pays des ouîghours
2021 Geographical | Photographing Xinjiang, where Uyghur symbols are vanishing
2021 Point.51 | Minor Differences
2021 Der Standard | Wie Kodak eine Fotografen aus Angst vor dem Zorn Pekings im Stich liest
2021 All About Photo | Dust by Patrick Wack
2021 New York Times | Kodak deletes post by photographer who called Xinjiang an Orwellian dystopia
2021 Fisheye magazine | Dust, un génocide invisible?
2021 Analogue Magazine |
2021 Asialyst | Dust de Patrick Wack, la poussière du Xinjiang
2021 lemonde.fr | Des Diplomates Birmans entrent en résistance
2020 Telerama.fr | En Chine, l'invisible calvaire du peuple ouïghour
2020 inframe.fr | Interview Patrick Wack
2020 le Monde | Comment la Chine tente d'effacer les minorités musulmanes
2020 Blind Magazine | Patrick Wack: an ideal confinement
2020 Wired.com | In Xinjiang, tourism erodes the last traces of Uyghur culture
2020 HORSCHAMP magazine | Lumière sur la communauté ouïgour
2019 Aserica magazine | Featuring Out West
2019 C41 magazine | Patrick Wack drags us into an alternative China
2019 ywyw magazine | Patrick Wack: Out West
2019 American Photography's Pro Photo Daily | Patrick Wack's journey through China's unseen "New Frontier"
2019 Ignant | Photographs from the new frontier: Patrick Wack journeys to Xinjiang
2019 it's nice that | Patrick Wack's photos of Xinjiang show beauty and despair on China's new frontier
2019 British Journal of Photography | Patrick Wack's Out West
2019 Photo Chronicles | A portraiture of Mankind by Patrick Wack
2019 The Independent Photographer | Out West
2019 PH Museum | Out West
2018 Asialyst | Portfolio: Où va le Xinjiang?
2018 PF | Het wilde westen van China
2018 Leonberg Kreiszeitung | Suche nach der verlorenen Identität
2018 PAPER | The sport China can't lose
2018 Time.com | The silk road rebooted
2018 China Channel | Badlands of Xinjiang
2017 Petapixel | Out West: a visual narrative of China's westernmost region
2017 i-ref | Fotograf Patrick Wack zeigt Chinas andere Seite
2017 Fubiz | Stunning images of China's Xinjiang region by Patrick Wack
2017 Photography of China | Patrick Wack
2017 The Eye of Photography | Patrick Wack: China's Far West
2016 Asialyst | Portfolio: pélerinage tibétain en Chine de l'Ouest
2015 Asialyst | Shanghai: images passées, mémoires présentes
2014 GUP magazine | Ici il y a de l'homme
Clients (selection)
Cartier
Richemont Group
Louis Vuitton
Omega
Chanel
Porsche
Jaeger-Lecoultre
Cerruti 1881
Adidas
Bentley
Shiseido
Hermes
Fila
Renault
Volkswagen
Air Liquide
FORD
Crédit Agricole
Nike
Estée Lauder
Danone
Essilor
The North Face
Phillip Lim
Safran
Snecma
EDF
Intel
BASF
BMW
Gemalto
Shangri-La
OSRAM
Lufthansa
Systra
KUKA
L'Oréal
Thales
Sanofi
Kone
Gulfstream
Suez
Suntech