Biography

My name is Yves Lacroix, I am a photographer and I dream of cinema. I was born in France in 1972, but it was images that watched me grow up.

Combining documentary and staged photography, my large-format tableaux — where natural and artificial light always mix — are in color. They speak of the human condition, of the fractures of this world, using symbolism, analogy and sometimes irony. I photograph what disturbs, while searching for what is beautiful.

As a child, I spent hours in front of the television, at my grandmother's side, captivated by the endless horizons of westerns and the universe of American series. From those moments frozen in cathode light came, no doubt, my passion for images and that American imagination which has never left me. I began to think in images without yet knowing it.

After studying law, I left that world in 1997 to become a photographer's assistant in Paris, then in New York. Years alongside Dominique Issermann, Patrick Demarchelier and Neil Kirk taught me the discipline of the studio and the demands of light. I then worked for the luxury industry — Yves Saint Laurent, Van Cleef & Arpels, Karl Lagerfeld.

My work moves between cinema and reality, between the dreamlike and the documentary. A narrative, humanist universe, where light is the lead character and where places, sets and atmospheres carry as much soul as those who inhabit them.

Photographer of the Year — Annual Photography Awards 2025. Recognized by the International Photography Awards (IPA), Budapest International Foto Awards and LensCulture Critics’ Choice 2025.