YANNIG HEDEL
Born in 1948 in Saint-Nazaire, Yannig Hedel moved to Lyon at the age of 21, where his photographic journey began. A self-taught photographer, he has worked exclusively with black-and-white analog photography on baryta paper since the 1970s.
His work explores light, time and urban architecture. For over fifty years, he has roamed cities capturing geometric forms shaped by shadow and light, in a constant search for precision, purity and silence. Positioned between abstraction and figuration, his images reflect a deep inquiry into perception and the slow transformation of space.
His work has been featured in around thirty solo exhibitions and over forty group shows and festivals in France and abroad in countries such as the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. He also contributed to the presentation of the Madeleine Millot-Durrenberger collection in over twenty exhibitions across Europe.
His photographs are part of numerous public and private collections, including the French National Contemporary Art Fund, the museums of Arles, Strasbourg, Charleroi, Chalon-sur-Saône and Stuttgart, the Lyon Municipal Library, and a dozen public art collections in cities including Grenoble, Angers, Annecy, La Rochelle and Strasbourg.
Several exhibitions at Galerie Thierry Bigaignon Midi et Quart in 2018, Passé composé in 2021 and De prime abord in 2024 have highlighted the quiet strength of his work. Hedel is widely recognized for his formal rigor, his sensitivity to light and his singular place within contemporary French photography.
SELECTED ARTWORKS
VIDEOS
Yannig Hedel, “Quarter Past Twelve” (English subtitles)
Relentless street walker, Yannig Hedel has been tracking the race of time on the urban architecture for 50 years, day after day, season after seasons, and offers us an extensive and coherent lifetime body of work. Yannig Hedel talks about his work in this flash interview.
Courtesy Galerie Thierry Bigaignon
PUBLICATION
SOLO SHOWS (selection)
2024 ”At First Glance”, Bigaignon, Paris, France
2021 ”Passé Composé”, Bigaignon, Paris, France
2018 ”Quarter Past Twelve”, Bigaignon, Paris, France
2013 La Spirale Media Library, Le Toboggan Décines, Décines-Charpieu, France
2012 ”Racines”, Gallery Vrais Rêves, Lyon, France
2010 Bibliothèques de Lyon, Lyon, France
2007 Institut français de Prague + Gallery 4, Kladno, Czech Republic
2004 ”La rose des vents”, Gallery Vrais Rêves, Lyon, France
2001 ”Arles, soleils tournants”, Museum REATTU, Arles, France
2000 ”De Labore Solis”, Institut français de Dresde, France
2000 Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Nantes, France
1998 Gallery Pennings, Eindhoven, Netherlands
1998 ”D’ombres et de lumière”, Gallery Vrais Rêves, Lyon, France
1996 Musée de l'Élysée, Lausanne, France
1996 Contemporary Art Center of Rueil-Malmaison, Rueil-Malmaison, France
1995 ”Heures blanches”, Municipal library of Lyon / Part-Dieu, France
1995 ”De Labore Solis”, Espace St Cyprien, Toulouse, France
1993 Galerie Bild, Aarau, Switzerland
1993 ”De Labore Solis”, Gallery Vrais Rêves, Lyon, France
1992 Gallery Foto Med. Art, Castle of Wojnovice-Wroclaw, Wroclaw, Poland
1989 ”Bribes & Fragments”, Espace St Cyprien, Toulouse, France
1988 ”Monolithe”, CAP Museum of Villefranche-sur-Saône, France
1987 Gallery Lindemanns, Stuttgart, Germany
1987 ”Monolithe”, Gallery Vrais Rêves, Lyon, France
1985 Gallery J.P.Lambert, Paris, France
1984 Artotheques d’Annecy, de Grenoble, Saint Brieuc et B.M. Givors, France
1983 ”Accrochage 83”, CAP Museum of Villefranche-sur-Saône, France
1983 Gallery Le Réverbère, Lyon, France
GROUP SHOWS (selection)
2025 “Ligne(s) de mire”, off-site show at the Bonisson Art Center, Bigaignon, Rognes, France
2023 ”The Dialectic of the Shadow”, Bigaignon, Paris, France
2023 ”Chair de temps”, Bigaignon, Paris, France
2022 ”Radical Perspectives”, Bigaignon, Paris, France
2020 “United”, Bigaignon, Paris, France
2015 ”Opus”, Museum Réattu, Arles, France
2011 ”Sur mesure”, Museum Réattu, Arles, France
2011 ”Fragments”, Museum d'Art contemporain de Strasbourg, France
2009 ”Chambres d’écho”, Museum Réattu Arles, France
2009 ”Mai de la Photographie 2009”, Quimper, France
2009 ”Nuages...”, Museum A. Malraux, Le Havre, France
2009 ”Lyon, des photographes...”, Museum des moulages, Lyon, France
2009 ”Grottes et cavernes”, URDLA, Villeurbanne, France
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2008 ”Carte blanche à Christian Lacroix...”, sélection collections Musée Réattu, Arles, France
2007 Galerie « L’Usine », Lyon, France
2006 ”Au fil du temps”, Pignan, France
2005 Collection Jacques Py, Médiathèque, Nantes, France
2004 ”Forte Impression”, URDLA Villeurbanne, France
2003 ”XL”, La collection photographique d’Arles, Musées Réattu, Arles Antique et Le Capitole, Arles, France
2002 ”Fragments d’azur”, Musée de l’Architecture, Wroclaw, Poland
2002 ”Europa, l’esprit des villes”, Septembre de la photographie, Lyon, France
2002 Galerie Sztuki, Klodzko, Pologne
2002 “Portrait d’une collection”, Musée Réattu / Fondation MAEGHT, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France
2001 Galerie Spectrum, Saragosse, Spain
2001 ”Fragments d’azur”, L’Espace Suisse, Strasbourg, France
2001 ”Le regard du photographe”, Artothéque de Lyon, France
1997 ”Le temps à l’œuvre”, Artothèques de Caen & Vitré, Caen, France
1995 ”Paysages...”, Musée de Chambéry, France
1992 ”Visages, paysages, et autres rivages”, Centre d'Art Contemporain, Brussels, Belgium
1991 Jubilé Galerie Lindemanns / Présentation Collection Werner Gotze - Stuttgart
”Salon Découvertes 91” (sélection Bibliothèque Nationale.), Grand Palais, Paris, France
1990 ”La conversation”, Collection de photographie Contemporaine du Musée de Strasbourg, France
1985 S.I.R.P. Royan, 1985 (Premier prix N & B)
1985 Présentation de la Collection Bert Hartkamp, Château de Hoensbroek, Netherlands
1984 ”La photographie créative”, Bibliothèque Nationale de France
1984 ”Images & Imaginaires d’Architecture”, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
1984 ”L'Architecture : sujet, objet, ou prétexte”, Le Mans, Naples, Italie
1981 ”Figures en façade”, E.L.A.C./ Lyon, France
COLLECTIONS (selection)
FNAC (acquisitions 1983, 1987 et 1995)
Museum of Arles
Museum of Strasbourg
Museum of Niepce, Châlon sur Saône
Museum Charleroi (Belgium)
Museum of the city Stuttgart (Germany)
Collections of the city of Toulouse, Quimper, Beauvais,...
Municipal Library of Lyon/ National Foundation of Photography
Artotheques de Villefranche s/Saône, de Grenoble, d'Angers, d'Evry, de Lyon, d'Annecy, de La Rochelle, de Saint Brieuc, de Montpellier, de Caen, de Nantes, de Villeurbanne, de Strasbourg
Private collections in Lyon, Paris, Strasbourg, Amsterdam, Stuttgart, Eindhoven, Wroclaw, Dresden...
Collection Panoptès (Brussels, Belgium)