BIOGRAPHY

Laurent Cicolella is a French artist. He was born in 1976 in the north of France, and devoted most of his childhood and adolescence to arts: violin, singing, dance, theatre, writing, poetry,… He discovered photography when he was 8 and was initiated very early to painting and pictorial composition by visiting many museums in Europe and North America.

During his studies in Paris, in 1998, he worked for a few months at Magnum Photos, where he organized the agency’s international exhibitions. There, he discovered the photographs of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa as well as Elliott Erwitt and Martin Parr, who all had a great influence on his work. He met photographers like Raymond Depardon, René Burri, Bruno Barbey or Josef Koudelka, and what is more important, he could also have a free access to their contact prints, and observe how Magnum’s photographers work.

With the help of a friend, who lent him an old Leica CL and a darkroom, he decided then to walk through Paris streets and to make his first photographs in black and white. Since 1998, Laurent Cicolella has traveled in more than 60  countries, and has taken pictures on the five continents. However, the way that he sees and captures the world has not changed : in a serious world, made of stress, crisis and tragedy, he prefers to photograph on the contrary the short
moments of emotion and poetry offered by the street and the passers-by, which make life more beautiful.

In parallel, he continued to be very active in his professional life, thus he had the opportunity to travel very often. Graduate in Political Sciences, and after a 1-year grant at German Parliament, he post-graduated of an MBA. In 2001, he started a brilliant international career in Communication and Marketing, which led him to work in Germany, in Poland, in China, in the UK and to learn 9 languages.

Since 2017, Laurent Cicolella lives and works in France. While developing further a high-level carrier path, he dedicates more time to writing and to the promotion of his photographs.

He is married and has two children.