It all began because women eluded me, I used photography to get closer to them and in fact I distanced myself because I sublimated them. It was naturally subconscious.

**The artist: Christian Coigny**

Born in 1946, Christian Coigny spent his youth in Lausanne. At 20 years old, he started at the Vevey School of Photography but ended up spending only a few months there. He went to San Francisco where he lived for 5 years. With a limited dossier, he spent most of his time going round advertising agencies. One day, he was asked to do an advert for Levi's and then the jobs began to come one after the other.The lights and the open spaces of the west, painted by Georgia O'Keeffe or Edward Hopper, made a big impression on him and continued from then on to influence his commercial as well as personnel work. On return to his home town, Lausanne, he opened a studio and worked in various areas: portraits, fashion and still life. He distinguished himself with his campaign for a chain of stores for which he did posters for more than 10 years.Vitra entrusted him with the 'Personalities' campaign– consisting of photographing 130 personalities on seats designed by Charles Eames, Citterio, Jasper Morrison, Frank Gehry...Parallel to his commissioned work, continually prompted by his passion for photography in its purest form, Christian Coigny takes photos for himself, in all possible areas, mainly in black and white.