Christophe Agou was born in 1969 in the Massif Central region of France. He moved to New York in 1992 where he developed a love for the city and an uncanny feel for the look of the ordinary – in people, places and objects. He first came to prominence with his compelling photographs made in the New York subway and published ‘Life Below’ in October 2004.
Bridging the worlds of documentary and art photography, Agou works in extended series both in color and black and white. His intimate images haunt and intrigue us at the same time and create a layered and intensely rich visual language that trigger thoughts and emotions.
His work earned a Santa Fe Center for the Visual Arts Award in 2000 and a National Press Photographers Association Picture of the Year Award in 2002. In 2006, for his work on family farmers, he was a finalist for the prestigious W. Eugene Smith annual Grant in Humanistic Photography.
His work has been featured and reviewed in The New York Times, Photo District News, Foto 8, Black & White Magazine, New York Magazine, Fotoposytyw, Chinese Photography and published editorially in major magazines including Newsweek, Time, Life, The Sunday Times Magazine, Geo, Forbes, Neon, Liberation, El Pais Semanal and The Atlantic Monthly.
Agou’s photographs have been widely exhibited worldwide including, the MoMA NY, The Museum of American History, Le Musee du JEu de Paume, The Southeast Museum of Photography, Noorderlicht, Fotofest, Splitgraphic Biennial, Guilin China International Photography Festival, The Santa Fe Center for Visual Arts, Les Rencontres D’Arles and Les Galleries Photo Fnac.
