Léon Dubois

Je vis et travaille entre Alexandrie, en Égypte et Poitiers, en France. Mon travail associe la photographie argentique à la recherche en archives pour poser un regard contemporain sur des œuvres littéraires. Après avoir travaillé sur Maalesh de Jean Cocteau, je poursuis mon travail sur les imaginaires littéraires en partant à la recherche du Petit Prince aujourd’hui, sur les traces d'Antoine de Saint-Exupéry dans le monde. 

Ce projet performatif itinérant consiste en une collecte des mémoires individuelles des lecteurs du monde entier à partir desquels je dresse les contours visuels et conceptuels d'un Petit Prince du XXIème siècle. En 2023, je suis lauréat des Ateliers Médicis, de l’OFQJ et suis soutenu par l'Institut Français d'Égypte, le Consulat Général de France au Québec, la DRAC Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Grand-Est et la DAAC de l'académie de Poitiers, Limoges, Orléans-Tours, Strasbourg ainsi que par l'Université de Poitiers (MSHS).

I am a photographer who specializes in literature and collective memory. In my practise, I combine both archival research with the collection of individual memory of today's readers. I began my career as a photographer in 2015, at Calais refugee camp, France. Two years later I settled in Alexandria, Egypt, with the goal to acquire a deeper understanding of the Arab world. 

The timeless city of Alexandria struck my soul with her strange energy of a city stuck between a glorious past and an unsure future. I wanted others to have the opportunity to feel the awe-inspiring beauty of the city, as well as tell a distinct story of what Alexandria is today. I went about this by combining my photographs with poetry from the last century.

Between 2019 and 2021 I worked on Jean Cocteau's diary Maalesh published in 1949 after the French writer went on a three-month tour of the Mediterranean. I traced Cocteau’s travels and created a contemporary photographic interpretation of what this Mediterranean journey would look like today. In 2021 I have been showing a collection of seventeen analog prints from this project Maalesh, voyage en Méditerranée, in France and Egypt. My work is supported by Institut Français, Comité Jean Cocteau, Versailles University and Bergger Inc.

In 2022 I initiated À la recherche du Petit Prince -  Searching for the Little Prince, a long term, collaborative and global project in the footsteps of the writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. This itinerant performance project consists of a collection of individual memories of readers from all over the world, from which I define the visual and conceptual outlines of a Little Prince of the 21st century. In 2023, I am a laureate of the Ateliers Médicis, OFQJ and am supported by the French Institute of Egypt, the Consulate General of France in Quebec, the DRAC Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Grand-Est and the DAAC of the academy of Poitiers, Limoges, Orléans-Tours, Strasbourg as well as by the University of Poitiers (MSHS)