1992
Through his camera lens, photographer Gérard Uféras offers a rarified backstage pass to the world’s top operas, ballets and fashion shows. Described as a storyteller and magician, Uféras shoots contemporary, figurative photographs that evoke sensuality, mystery, elegance and grace, with a rich sense of humanism.
Born in Paris, in 1954, Uféras was introduced to photography at the tender age of eight, when he began using his father’s cameras. At 11 years old, he was a regular visitor to Paris’s museums, soaking in all aspects of the arts, culture and history.
Although Uféras’s passion for photography began at an early age, it wasn’t until he was 28 — when he was working in a retail shop selling jeans — that he decided to pursue it as a professional career. “I simply didn’t know what I was doing with my life,” he has said. “For a few years at that point, I had a job that didn’t bring me any joy. . . . I realized that if I don’t do something to change my life, I will die working in that shop, so it was really a ‘matter of life’ decision.”
Despite being largely self-taught, Uféras’s natural photographic talent soon caught the eyes of French newspaper editors. He began his career as a photojournalist in 1984, working for the daily Libération, and in 1986, he became a founding member of the VU photo agency. Then, in 1988, Uféras’s watershed moment came when he was invited backstage to photograph at The Palais Garnier. Since then, he has captured stunning portraits and still-lifes at opera houses and ballet performances across Europe.
Similarly, Uféras has been given carte-blanche access to major fashion houses such as Givenchy and Dior, resulting in beautifully shot, candid photographs of unposed models.
Throughout his career, Uféras’s black-and-white and color photographs have been featured in numerous international publications, including Le Monde, the New York Times, Beaux Arts magazine, Paris Match and L’Express. His works are in the collections in several major museums, such as The National Gallery in London, the Musée de l’Elysée (Photo Elysée) in Lausanne, the Multimedia Art Museum in Moscow and the Maison Européenne de la Photographie and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris.
On 1stDibs, find a range of Gérard Uféras photography.
Un Fantôme à L'Opéra, Arena di Verona, Italie III - Limited Edition Photograph
By Gérard Uféras
Located in Vienna, AT
This black and white photograph by Gérard Uféras captures a seated couple in the foreground of the Arena di Verona, surrounded by a vast and softly blurred audience. Their close post...
Silver Gelatin
Un Fantôme à L'Opéra, Arena di Verona, Italie V - Limited Edition Photograph
By Gérard Uféras
Located in Vienna, AT
This dramatic black and white photograph by Gérard Uféras reveals performers resting backstage at the Arena di Verona. Dressed in ornate costumes, one figure reclines in shadow while...
Silver Gelatin
Un Fantôme à L'Opéra, Arena di Verona, Italie IV - Limited Edition Photograph
By Gérard Uféras
Located in Vienna, AT
In this atmospheric photograph, Gérard Uféras captures the Arena di Verona under rain, where umbrellas, wet seats, and attentive spectators create a richly textured visual field. A m...
Silver Gelatin
Un Fantôme à L'Opéra, Arena di Verona, Italie I - Limited Edition Photograph
By Gérard Uféras
Located in Vienna, AT
This dynamic black and white photograph by Gérard Uféras captures the audience at the Arena di Verona, turning the spectators themselves into a theatrical spectacle. Women peer throu...
Silver Gelatin
Un Fantôme à L'Opéra, Arena di Verona, Italie II - Limited Edition Photograph
By Gérard Uféras
Located in Vienna, AT
In this touching image from the Arena di Verona, Gérard Uféras photographs a couple in rain ponchos, one seated and carefully adjusting the other’s collar. The vast arena and weather...
Silver Gelatin
Un Fantôme à L'Opéra, Salzburger Festspiele I - Limited Edition Photography
By Gérard Uféras
Located in Vienna, AT
This evocative black and white photograph by Gérard Uféras captures two young performers backstage at the Salzburger Festspiele in Austria. One child appears close to the camera in s...
Silver Gelatin
Gianfranco Ferré Prêt-à-Porter, Milan Backstage, Fashion Fine Art Photography
By Gérard Uféras
Located in Vienna, AT
“Gianfranco Ferré Prêt-à-Porter, Milan” by Gérard Uféras is a striking black-and-white backstage photograph that captures the intimate tension and sculptural elegance of a haute cout...
Silver Gelatin
L´ange du Saint Francois, Salzburger Festspiele, Fine Art Photography
By Gérard Uféras
Located in Vienna, AT
L´ange du Saint Francois d´assise de Messiaen, Salzburger Festspiele, Autrice, 1992 by Gérad Uféras. All prints are limited edition. Available in multiple sizes. High-end framing on request. All prints are done and signed by the artist. Daring women, teint de porcelaine, and delicate tracings in silver; the French star photographer Gérard Uféras creates masterpieces radiant with a certain je ne sais quoi. Moving the noise of everyday life into the background for a moment, his works are aesthetic oases for the senses. Curving down an exposed back, delineating delicate lines, or an ephemeral smile: Uféras is the connoisseur of fashion and ballet photography. His works are an homage to female elegance, playfulness, and jest. Gerard Uferas...
Silver Gelatin
Salzburger Festspiele #1, Salzburg, Austria
By Gérard Uféras
Located in Vienna, AT
Gerard Uferas' photographs have appeared in numerous publications, including "Liberation", "Time Magazine", "The New York Times", "Le Monde", and "Marie ...
Archival Pigment
By The Museum, Signed Contemporary Silver Gelatin Print by Tod Papageorge
By Tod Papageorge
Located in Long Island City, NY
By The Museum is a gelatin silver print from On the Acropolis, a portfolio of 25 photographs by Tod Papageorge made on the Athenian Acropolis in the summers of 1983 and 1984. The ima...
Silver Gelatin
Cyrille Druart Beautiful Photography
By Cyrille Druart
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Black and white original photography by Cyrille Druart. Edition: I/V Dimensions: 120 x 90 cm Cyrille Druart is a French photograph and architect, a book about his new series wi...
St. Peter's Square, Rome, Italy, Black and White Photo, Signed, Edition, 20x16
By Leonard Freed
Located in New york, NY
St. Peter's Square, Rome, Italy, 1958 by Leonard Freed is a black and white photograph of two figures (priests) dressed in black on a snowy afternoon, contrasting the falling snow an...
Photographic Film, Archival Ink, Digital, Archival Pigment, Digital Pigment
