Martine Fougeron is an artist, photographer, film director and educator living and working in New York and France.
Born in Paris and educated at l’Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris, Wellesley College, and the International Center of Photography, Fougeron has lived in New York since 1996 where she led a successful career in the fragrance industry, serving as the "nose of the noses" of 20 world-class perfumers at International Flavors and Fragrances until 2000 and then devoted herself completely to her artistic career.
Fougeron achieved recognition with her award-winning photographic project "Nicolas & Adrien," an intimate portrait of her two adolescent sons and their friends. This series has led to exhibitions in Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia, China, France, Italy, South Korea, and Switzerland, as well as acquisitions by the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, and other major private collections.
Nicolas & Adrien, A World with two Sons, Fougeron’s monograph published by Steidl in 2020, excerpts the first 15 years of that ongoing project.
Her documentary series “The South Bronx Trades and Workers” celebrates that neighborhood’s diversity of vocation and craft. The work was exhibited in a solo show at The Bronx Museum of The Arts in 2016.
A faculty member at the International Center of Photography, Fougeron has served as a guest artist and teacher at the Pratt Institute, New York University, City College of New York, and the School of Visual Arts, as well as a 2016 Yaddo artist in residence. She is founder and director of The Photography Master Retreat, an annual intensive mentoring workshop in the south of France.
Fougeron’s incisive images of the arts and city culture have made her a frequent contributor to major publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal Magazine, New York Magazine, The Guardian, Financial Times Week End, and Vice.
Currently Fougeron is preparing a solo retrospective at the Bronx Museum of the Arts (2025) and responding to her vast family archive with experiments in poetical documentary, most recently her award winning short film Summertime à Esparon (2023).
Fougeron, a 5th Dan Kyudo archer and hot air balloon pilot, is an insightful journeyer drawn to the rhythms of life in Japan and India.