Photography
The Body, the Stage & the Image
French, born 1954
A held breath, a change of balance, a gesture caught in light. Hervé Lewis approaches photography through the expressive possibilities of the body. Explore selected works alongside the campaigns, portraits and creative relationships that have shaped his career.
A first look
Explore the individual image through its composition, scale and edition. Contact Markowicz Fine Art for current availability, presentation options and details of the works that interest you.
Browse by collection
Enter a collection to explore the individual photographs.
Beyond the portfolio
The images and documents in this section trace the artist’s career. Their inclusion does not indicate that a corresponding print is available for purchase.
Chapter
Aubade
Visual to be supplied for this chapter
From the campaign to the studio
A gesture, a line of lace, a story left open. Explore Hervé Lewis’s contribution to Aubade’s Leçons de séduction, from a campaign photograph in 2000 to the anniversary calendar of 2012–2013 and the later life of these images as signed prints.
Chapter
Mylène Farmer
Visual to be supplied for this chapter
From portrait to album cover
Before a photograph becomes an album cover, there is a relationship behind the camera. From tour programmes to Oui mais... Non and Monkey Me, discover how Hervé Lewis’s portraits entered Mylène Farmer’s visual world alongside a long-standing collaboration in physical preparation.
Chapter
Johnny Hallyday
Visual to be supplied for this chapter
Understanding the performer
Hervé Lewis’s long working relationship with Johnny Hallyday began in physical preparation. This chapter looks beyond the public image to explore the connection between performance, an understanding of the body and the photographer’s attention to gesture and presence.
Selected milestones
Campaigns, books, record sleeves and exhibitions — each entry names its nature and the artist’s role.
Aubade, Leçon de séduction no. 35 — autumn/winter 2000 campaign.
Advertising campaign — Photographer.
Belles, Éditions de La Martinière (ISBN 2-7324-2682-2).
Book — A photography book by Hervé Lewis.
L’art d’aimer : 10 ans de leçons de séduction, Éditions de La Martinière (ISBN 2-7324-2848-5).
Collective publication — Contributing photographer.
Mylène Farmer, Oui mais... Non.
Single artwork — Photography credit; graphic design by Henry Neu.
Mylène Farmer, Monkey Me, released December 2012.
Album cover — Cover photograph by Hervé Lewis; other visual contributors retain their separate credits.
Aubade anniversary calendar celebrating twenty years of Leçons de séduction.
Collector calendar — Photographer.
Aubade & Ruban Rose, 20 October 2022.
Charity auction — Signed photographic prints by Hervé Lewis and Michel Perez, sold by Artus for the benefit of Ruban Rose.
Shapes & Shades, Bel-Air Fine Art Lausanne, from 5 October 2023.
Group presentation — Participating artist.
Finished photographs conceal the choices that make them possible. This chapter returns to the workspace, bringing process, printed images and the photographer’s own account into view. It offers a pause between the public life of a picture and the close attention it asks of a collector.
Markowicz Fine Art helps collectors explore Hervé Lewis’s photography through the works themselves. Enquire about a particular image to discuss its available edition, dimensions and presentation. Archival campaign and music imagery is shown separately to provide context for the artist’s practice.
About the artist
Hervé Lewis was born in the south of France in 1954. A former boxer, he first worked as a physical trainer for performers in music and film — Johnny Hallyday, whom he prepared for nearly two decades, Mylène Farmer, whose tours he accompanied from 1989 to 2013, and Jean Reno among them. Photographing the body was a natural extension of that work: self-taught, he began shooting with a manual Nikon FM.
His name is associated with Aubade’s Leçons de séduction, the lingerie brand’s black-and-white campaigns, which he photographed over many years, including the collector calendar for the campaign’s twentieth anniversary (2012–2013). His photographs have also appeared on record sleeves and tour material for Mylène Farmer, notably the cover of Monkey Me (2012).
His books include Belles (Éditions de La Martinière, 2000) and the collective volume L’art d’aimer : 10 ans de leçons de séduction (La Martinière, 2002); his work was featured in Taschen’s The New Erotic Photography. He held his first exhibition at Galerie Albert Benamou, Paris, in 2002, and showed at Art Paris, Grand Palais, in 2009. His series with the sumo champion Musashimaru sets the wrestler’s mass against a model’s slightness — force and sensuality in one frame. More recently his photographs were presented in Shapes & Shades at Bel-Air Fine Art, Lausanne (2023).
Collecting Hervé Lewis
Contact Markowicz Fine Art to discuss a particular photograph, its edition, dimensions and presentation.
Enquire about a work, an artist, or a visit — a member of our team will respond shortly.
