Biography

Jean-Sébastien Monzani is a Swiss and French freelance photographer, graphic-designer, illustrator and video-artist born in 1975.

Emotion, elegance, simplicity, a strong sense of composition and colour are key elements in his work. His images (mostly portraits) are often constructed as narrative series: either like photo-stories (much like movie storyboards) or short movies involving actors. No matter the media, Jean-Sébastien plays with imagination and atmosphere, sometimes by adding extra surrealistic elements in his images. His themes often depict a sense of magic in reality. Most of his work is also influenced by magic realism - with authors such as Haruki Murakami, Jorge Luis Borges or Dino Buzzati – as well as visual poetry in performance arts.

When referring to composition, he likes to cite Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: Perfection in design is not achieved when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to remove.

Publications, Broadcasting, Articles and Exhibitions

2010

• July 2010: "Fragments" is featured and broadcasted on cable-TV Souvenirs from earth
• July 2010: "Your secret" is selected and featured by the staff of high-quality artistic video websites: Vimeo and Motionographer
• May 2010: "Paragnèse" is broadcasted on cable-TV Souvenirs from earth
• March 2010: An artistic collaboration starts with the famous company Red Giant Software where my movies are featured on their website as sample-use of their products.

2009

• November 2009: "Seatopia" is broadcasted on cable-TV Souvenirs from earth
• October 2009: Cover-page and 2 pages article in Photo Techniques magazine Mastering Digital Photography special issue (USA)
• September 2009: Cover-page and 6 pages portfolio in Photo Digital magazine #65 (Istambul, Turkey)
• July 2009: I am one of the winners of Datacolor's contest Colors of my Life. Publication in the corresponding book
• July 2009: My movie "entretemps" is broadcasted on cable-TV Souvenirs from earth
• June 2009: My book Suspended Time is officially becomes a best-seller on Blurb.com and the compagny officially selects it to showcase their services to clients
• February 2009: TV interview for TVRL (Swiss National Post stamps design)

2008

• Creating Digital Frames and Borders and Advanced Skin Softening, articles commissioned by famous website photo.net (July/August 2008)
• Phosphore magazine (France) (illustrations) June 2008
• PhotoArt magazine (Czech Republic) April 2008
• Soura Magazine (Dubai) March-April 2008

2003-2007

• La Republicca (Italia) - Photographer feature Sept 2007
• Art:PartTwo international exhibition in Bucharest in March 2007 (selected as one of the artists) - Interview in the exhibition catalogue
• .PSD Magazine (Poland, UK, Fr, Germany, Italy...) Dec 2006, March 2007
• Digital Photo (UK) Dec 2006, March 2007
• Digital Photographer (Ukr) Jul 2005, Jan 2006
• 17 Fotografen, 17 Zelfportretten (Amsterdam) May 2005 (international group exhibition)
• Photo Magazine (Hong Kong) Jun 2004
• Digital Photo Magazine (Fr) Jan 2004
• Contribution to An advanced guide to digital photography (V.Oliver, Ava ed.)
• Illustration for Basics Photography - Lighting (D.Präkel, Ava/Academia ed.)
• Illustration for Basics Photography - Composition (D.Präkel, Ava/Academia ed.)
• Illustration for Basics Photography - Capturing color (Phil Malpas, Ava/Academia ed.)