About
« An approach that integrates art and industry »
The Valerie Hersleven agency, founded in London in 1997, has always aimed to select photographers gifted with a truly creative visual language. London advertising agencies were quick to appreciate Valerie Hersleven's ability to bring in new photographers, from Germany, Belgium or the US, that they enjoyed working with. When Valerie Hersleven came to Paris in 2003, she took care to preserve what set her apart in London: introducing new photographers into a tight market.
The Valerie Hersleven agency in Paris has since then focused on introducing to local art directors in advertising, fashion and print magazines, talented photographers who have attracted attention in Britain (such as Julia Fullerton-Batten, winner in 2007 of the HSBC Foundation Award, which she entered at Valerie Hersleven's initiative), in Germany (Michael Schnabel and Peter Granser, two major figures of German photography) and in New York, Christoph Morlinghaus.
With its focus on showing clients and business partners the benefits of an approach that combines art and industry, the Valerie Hersleven agency quickly attracted young Parisian talents who wished to see that level of attention granted to their personal projects, both conceptual exhibitions and corporate commissions.
Estelle Rancurel and Jan Van Endert joined the agency in 2005, followed by Coco Amardeil, Bjorn Tagemose and Elene Usdin in 2007 and 2008. More recently still, Marjolijn de Groot, Laurent Humbert, Mathieu Bernard-Reymond (Arcimboldo Award winner in May 2009) and Hervé Plumet have also joined the Valerie Hersleven team.
The agency now numbers fourteen photographers, all of whom enjoy combining personal creation and responses to advertising briefs, with each type of work nourishing the other.
What Valerie Hersleven aims to illustrate is that advertising commissions and artistic creation are anything but opposites: they are complementary and mutually enrich one another.