Born in La Flèche, France. Childhood years spent in Provence and in the northern region of Brittany. Moved to Paris at sixteen and has lived there ever since.
1966/70 :
Begins a lifelong passion for traveling with a first trip to Morocco, then trips to Egypt and India. Degrees in political science and in law from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques.
1971/77 :
First photographs taken during a second trip to India in 1971. On the same trip meets an American journalist and writer, Nancy Guri Duncan whom he marries in 1979. Works for an American TV station as photographer, then travels to Mexico and Central America before returning to France. Works in advertising before giving it up in 1976 to devote himself to photography. In 1976 spends four months in the United States covering the bicentennial. Photo projects in Spain, Portugal, England, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland in 1977. (festivals and religious pilgrimages in Europe.) Receives the 3M Adventure Grant.
1978/80 :
Joins the photo agency VIVA in Paris in 1978. Continues to travel and photograph in Europe. In 1979 receives an assignment from the French Foreign Affairs Ministry to cover festivals in Quebec. Recipient of a grant from the National Foundation of Photography, Lyon. Selected for the presentation “Young French Photographers” at the International Photo Festival in Arles. Travels in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, the United States, Canada, Poland, Morocco in 1979-80.
1981/82:
Receives a grant from the French Ministry of Culture, 1981, to photograph the saxophonist group Urban Sax (project which includes an exhibition Photoscopies 81, and television film). Travels to India, Israel, the U.S.R.R. and Egypt in 1981-82. Wins a National Fellowship for Research and Creation for a project of one year in the United States, 1982.
1983/84 :
Spends fifteen months in the United States, traveling through-out the country in a Volkswagen van visiting 42 states in all. The results of that year’s work “Traveling America” is presented at the International Photography Festival of Arles in 1984 where he also directs a photography class.
1984/1985 :
Travels in Italy, Greece, Turkey, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, the USA and Europe.
1985/87 :
Leaves the agency VIVA to join RAPHO in 1986. Receives a grant from the Angénieux Foundation for a project photographing animals around the world (“Magic Animals”). Travels to Tunisia, Turkey, Morocco, Burkina Faso, Niger, Ireland, Egypt, Israel, Rumania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Kenya, USA in 1986-87. Commissioned by the Cartier Foundation for a project “Homage to Ferrari”.
1988/89 :
Returns to India as one of the winners of the Air France/City of Paris photo competition. Travels to the USA, Mexico, Guatemala, Greece the same year. Commission from the city of Montpellier, “The Beach at Sète”, 1988. Receives the Leonardo da Vinci grant from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1988, for a project photographing fish in Japan, “Creatures of the Deep”. Travels to Japan and China.
1990/94 :
Commissioned by the French Ministry of Major Projects to photograph the Gallery of Zoology of the Paris Jardin des Plantes, 1990. Travels to Eastern Europe (photo project on the former Nazi concentration camps), to the United States and to Spain (photographing the ancient pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostella). Commission from the magazine le Festin (Bordeaux) to take photographs of the Paris-Bayonne train trajectory. Continues his projects on animals and his trips (USA, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Holland). His photos of the Gallery of Zoology are shown at the Perpignan Photo Festival (Visa pour l’Image). Project on the Louvre.
1995/96 :
Photographs his hometown of Sète where he spent his childhood. Trips to England, Wales, Italy, Greece. His work on the Gallery of Zoology wins a third prize in the World Press Photo and published in the international press. A car accident in April 1995 – his leg is injured – halts his traveling for a few months! Return to Greece for his project on the Greek Islands. Travels in 1996 to the Philippines, Thailand, Laos, Portugal, Spain on projects on the Christ and the Buddha. In the winter of 1996 is chosen as one of a number of photographers to photograph a Paris neighborhood for a television documentary and photographs his own neighborhood of Montmartre.
1997/98 :
Travels to Lithuania for his project on the image of Christ. Commission on pigeon raising by the M.J.C. de Rosendaël, Dunkerque, resulting in a small book « Pigeon Vole ». In April he teaches a photography workshop (photographing animals) to a lively class of 11 to 13 year olds from Gap where his exhibition Magic Animals is shown.. It is on his way to Gap with his wife that he discovers the region of the Drôme Valley. They fall in love with it and find a small house in a mountain village to spend part of each year. Travels to the United States for projects on Highway 101, Death Valley, the image of Christ, Halloween. Begins a project on the Drôme Valley. His project “Christus” is published in the Figaro Magazine’s Easter edition. Trips to Italy and Greece.
1999 :
Spends the first part of the year in Venice to complete his project on the city. Photography workshop for children in the suburbs of Paris. Presents his photographs during an evening slide show at the MEP (Maison Européenne de la Photographie). Begins a project on the menhirs of Brittany. Commissioned to photograph the winegrowers in the region of the Luberon which results in an exhibition and a book Les saisons de la vigne dans le Lubéron (éd. Hoëbeke). Travels to Italy, Greece.
2000 :
December 31 in the village of Urnäsch to photograph the New Year. Trips to Greece, Malte (where his exhibits “Christus” and “Shadows of Paris” are shown). Another photography workshop for children in the suburbs of Paris on the subject of a guide dog for the blind. Trip to United States. Participates in the Mois de la Photo 2000, Paris (“Shadows of Paris”). Presents his work for the Gens d’Images at the Maison Européen de la Photographie (MEP) in december. Begins a project on the rites of wine.
2001/2002 :
Travels around Europe for “Green Man” project (Belgium, England, Austria, Switzerland, Spain….) Invited as a guest photographer at the Montreal Festival en Lumiére, January. Trip to New York to photograph one hundred Santa Clauses in November.
2003 :
Travels around Europe to complete his “Green Man” project (England, Austria, France, Germany, Spain…). In the autumn, returns to Asia for a project on Buddha, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma (Myamar), and India, a commission from the collector Dr. Christian Dupuis, Brussels, Belgium.
2004/2005 :
Begins a project on the Vercors in the Drôme region of France, completes a project on trees (Veronique’s Garden), and continues his work on India (and Sri Lanka), returning there for a two month stay in the fall of 2005.
2006 :
Return to India in February, then to the United States in April. In the summer, returns to the land of his childhood, Brittany, for a project on the littoral. In November, three of his vintage photos are sold during a prestigious auction in Paris Trésors des Photographes by Artcurial.
2007 :
Return to Burma to make a one-of-a-kind author’s photo album for the collector Christian Dupuis. June and July in the USA for a project on “Car Art.” Private sales of his photographs in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Portland, Oregon. One of his photos in the MEP collection is exhibited during the Month of the Photo in Rio de Janeiro in the exhibition “Instantanés du Bonheur.”
2008 :
His photos of animals, Magic Animals, are published in the 2008 calendar published by “Reporters Without Borders.” Travels to Bulgaria, Corsica, Brittany. In September, return to India for six weeks.
2009 :
Trip to the United States where he covers the inauguration of Barack Obama as 44th president of the US. Purchase by the Carnavalet Museum of a selection of his photos on Paris. Commission from the Monuments de France. Travels to Ethiopia, Greece and Ireland for a project on “celestial mountains.” His exhibit on the USA, “Only in America” is shown at the Maison des Etats-Unis in Paris and at the International Festival of Photojournalism, Visa pour l’Image, in Perpignan. Return to the West Coast of the United States in November.
2010 :
Trips to Switzerland, Austria, Sardinia to complete his project on “Tree-Men”. Publication of his book “ONLY IN AMERICA” by Editions Créaphis.
2011/2012 :
Trips to the United States, Mt. Athos, Greece, and the Azores. He continues his project on “Primates” in zoos through-out the USA.
2013 :
Exhibition “Only in America” in Vichy, France. Voyage to Vietnam (a commission from the collector Dr. Christian Dupuis, Brussels, Belgium). Trips to Italy and Corsica for his project on the Mediterranean.
2013-14:
Exhibition “Only in America” in Vichy, France. Voyage to Vietnam (a
commission from the collector Dr. Christian Dupuis, Brussels, Belgium). Trips to
Italy and Corsica for his project on the Mediterranean. Trips to the United States
and Portugal.
2015:
Trip to Sardinia & Corsica photographing Easter festivities. To the USA to
begin a project on ghost towns and to photograph the Naked Bike races.
2016: Begins a project on photographing fish in aquariums in color: Painting with
Fish, as well as beginning a project on horses. In the fall, leaves Paris definitively to
live full-time in the Drôme.
2017-2018:
Trip to the States in the spring of 2017 to continue his project on ghost
towns. In 2018, trips to Ireland and England. Begins to photograph in French bird
reserves. Meets with the directors of Mediathèque de l’Architecture et Patrimoine
(MAP) regarding an eventual donation of all Le Diascorn photo archives.
2019-2020:
Begins to work on preparing his photographic archives for the
donation to the MAP. Continues his project on photographing birds. Exhibit of his
photos on angels at Berck-sur-Mer et à Marcigny With the Angels, in July and
October 2019.
François Le Diascorn 