FRENCH COWBOY

French Cowboy was born through the shared love of Mia Macfarlane and Julien Crouigneau for photography in 2012. The artist couple have a strong desire to create photographs enriched by storytelling, iconic visuals, and strong artistic direction. They often use fashion photography as a pretext to create art but are also versed in mysterious landscapes, objects, and nudes. Their epic stories are captivating and, over time, the spectator discovers layers of humor, melancholy and hidden tension. Their imagery shows fragility, force, and most of all courage as a fascination. They search for contrasts between glory and defeat. 

 

Mia and Julien’s iconic fashion photographs range from quirky intellectual inquisitions to visceral explorations of sexuality and body. As fashion photographers, they have created editorials with fashion houses such as Schiaparelli at L’Opera de Paris and Jean-Paul Gaultier in the streets of Paris along with numerous other editorials for “IRK”, “Vogue Italia”, “The Opéra”, “Animal Anatomy”, and “Antonym”… These photographs, along with more traditional representations of landscape and nudes, have comprised their career as exhibiting artists in London, New York, and Paris...

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French Cowboy were guest artists and speakers at the Nordic Light Photography Festival and they were expert portfolio reviewers at Arles Voie Off. Their photographs were published in the photography book “The Fashion Image”, a reference book amongst Mario Sorrenti, Inez and Vinoodh, Bruce Weber, and Richard Avedon. French Cowboy’s work will also be included in the next book “The Art Image”. They have had exhibition reviews in numerous magazines including Vogue, Madame Figaro, Huffington Post and more. They were also the winners of the Normal Fashion Nude competition. 

 

Mia Macfarlane was born in Durban, South Africa, and spent her formative years in Sweden and the USA. She studied General Fine art at MICA with a semester at SACI in Florence and got her Masters degree through a joint program between ENSCI in Paris and The London College of Communication. Before submersing herself in photography, she was a painter and mixed media artist. She has exhibited her work in galleries throughout Europe and the United States including the renowned “Espace Pierre Cardin”and the “Nesle Gallery” in Paris, France as well as the “Bruce Lurie Gallery” in LA, USA.

 

Julien Crouigneau was born in Grenoble, France and spent his youth in Algeria, Madagascar, Nice, and Cassis before moving to Paris in high school. He studied product & graphic design at the Industrial Design Superior School in Paris. Julien started his career as a designer for Philippe Starck all while being the art director of two magazines: one about design, INTRAMUROS; and one on trendy culture, KEITH. He has designed beauty products for many of the biggest cosmetic brands including l’Oreal Paris, Maybelline New York, Christian Louboutin, Lancome, Shu Uemura, Helena Rubinstein, and more.

 

Julien and Mia met fleetingly in 2002 and had one memorable lunch together. Years and life went by but they never forgot one another, so when they had the chance to meet again in 2012 they held on. Ever since their love for each other has grown with their passion for creating together as photographers.