Antoine Wagner

Antoine Wagner was born in 1982 in the United States. He grew up in Germany, the United Kingdom and France and lives and works to in Paris and New York. The photographer and film maker has studied political science and theater and arts in Chicago.

Beginning in 2007 he shot music videos among others for Phoenix, Spank Rock and Vanessa Paradis as well as documentaries for the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Franz Liszt Center in Raiding, Bayreuth and Luxemburg. Apart from his artist photo series he has collaborated with brands such as Armani, Heimstone, K-Swiss, Julian Louie and Julien David both on photo and film projects since 2009.

Antoine Wagner is currently working on the screenplay for his first feature movie and finishing a documentary about the French band Phoenix.

Antoine Wagner’s work is characterized by strong contrasts – as a director and film maker he is shooting in sold out concert venues, as a photographer and screenwriter he often set out for wide open landscapes. His journeys during the past five years have led him to all parts of the world where he has captured or rather stolen these life pauses.

With Landscapes Escaped Henn Galerie is showing a selection of 18 photographs that were taken on these journeys. As found in other works nostalgia is the leitmotif of the photographic series. This time in view of the sublime landscapes of Iceland and Alaska whose transiency the photographer depicts in every image. The faded colors, the high contrast and the graininess of analogue film emphasize this impression and visualize the transformations as well as the depth of layers of life.
"What really intrigues me about Iceland is the light, the open space and the extreme daylight differences of summer and winter. In the end, however, it was the images of the snow turned black by the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano – which just now receives another layer of ashes of the Grímsvötn volcano – that have motivated my desire to discover Iceland – now."
At the end of his trip to Iceland Wagner has come to pause himself: His work with the landscape and with the beauty of its emptiness has inspired him to go back to storytelling and interacting with others.