Melanie Wenger

Bio

Mélanie Wenger is a french documentary photographer Founding Member of Inland. She is a National Geographic Explorer. Graduate in Litterature and a Master's degree of journalism, she develops long-term documentary stories exploring photography, sound and video. She has been collaborating with Le Figaro Magazine, National Geographic, Stern, GEO, L'Obs, La Libre Belgique...

In 2011, she started to work on the serie ' Wasted Young Libya ' which took her three years.

Between 2014 and 2016, she focused on migrations between Libya, Malta and Belgium, for the serie ' Lost in migration '.

Since 2014, she has developed a long-term documentary serie in the intimacy of an elderly isolated lady in Brittany: 'Marie-Claude'. She is laureate of the 2017 HSBC Prize for photography and published the book 'Marie-Claude' with Actes Sud Editions the same year.

She has been working on 'Sugar Moon', a documentary story exploring the interactions between human and animal and the exotic game industry worldwide, following anti-poaching teams, poachers and hunters in Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Texas and South Africa for four years. The project was LensCulture Emerging Talent 2018 and has been projected in the festival Visa pour l'Image 2019. 'Sugar Moon'  was published in Le Figaro Magazine, National Geographic, Stern and Geo Germany.

In 2016, she started 'Broken Silence' a worldwide transmedia project collecting the stories of survivors of sexual violence to be published in 2021. She has been exploring augmented reality to find new ways of communication between magazines and web-platforms.

Publications

Monography

Marie-Claude, 2017, Actes Sud (éditeur Christian Caujolle)

Features

Déforestion N'est Pas Raison, Revue XXI, 2024, investigation with Katharina Finke
Bis Zum Letzten Baum, TAZ, 2024, investigation with Katharina Finke
Waldraub für Europas Konsum, TAZ, 2023, investigation with Katharina Finke
Life and Longevity, National Geographic Magazine, 2022
Retour à Kerguelen, Le Figaro Magazine, 2022, written by Vincent Jolly
Jenseits Von Afrika, GEO, 2021
Les Trophées de la discorde, Le Figaro Magazine, 2021, written by Vincent Jolly
L'étrange Ile Aux Animaux, Le Figaro Magazine, 2021, written by Vincent Jolly
Ein Ort Zum Toten, Stern, 2020
The last african penguin colony, National Geographic, 2021
Alerte en Guyane, Le Figaro Magazine, 2020, written by Vincent Jolly
Country Doctor, National Geographic, 2020
Safari Made In Texas, Le Figaro Magazine, 2019, written by Nadjet Cherigui

Exhibitions

Solo Shows

2024 HORIZON ZINGST Festival / 'Sugar Moon' / Leica Gallery / Curated by Edda Fahrenhorst / Zingst, Germany
2023 Besançon Photography Festival / 'Marie-Claude' / Besançon, France
2022 La Gacilly Festival / 'Terres Australes' / La Gacilly, France
2021 Visa pour l’image / 'Sugar Moon' / Perpignan, France
2018 Stimultania / 'Ce qui reste des âmes sauvages' / Retrospective / Strasbourg, France
2018 Les Photographiques / 'Marie-Claude' / Le Mans, France
2018 Festival Photo en poésie / 'Marie-Claude' / Landivisiau, France

Group Shows

2024 Bibliothèque Nationale de France / '114' in 'La France sous leurs yeux' / Curated by Héloïse Conesa and Emmanuelle Hascoet / Paris, France
2023 IN24 / Group Show / Inland Gallery / Curated by Inland / Arles, France
2018 Mills Pond Gallery / 'Ce qui reste des âmes sauvages' / Collective exhibition / Long Island, New York, USA
2018 Noor/Brassage photographique / 'Unframed' / Brussels, Belgium
2018 Boutographies / 'Marie-Claude' / Montpellier, France
2017 Arrêt sur l’image Gallery / 'Broken silence' / Bordeaux, France
2017 Arrêt sur l’Image Gallery / 'Marie-Claude' / Bordeaux, France
2017 Abbey Road Studio / 'Marie-Claude' / London, UK
2017 Maison de la Photographie / 'Marie-Claude' / Toulon, France
2017 Galifet Art Center / 'Marie-Claude' / Aix-en-Provence, France
2017 Esther Worderhoff Gallery / 'Marie-Claude' / Paris, France
2017 Photography Salon / 'Broken silence' / Strasbourg, France