Daniel Quesney
Photographer
Daniel Quesney, photographer and director, began his career working for several major architecture firms and developed a photography practice focused on landscape. In 1986, he joined the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie as project manager for several major exhibitions. From 1992 to 1999, he was responsible for technical and artistic supervision at the Ministry of the Environment's Photographic Observatory of the Landscape.
In 2001, he published Miroirs, reconstitution photographique (Mirrors, Photographic Reconstruction) with Arp Éditions, a work based on photographs by Eugène Atget. Since then, he has published a dozen books, some of which consist of photographic reconstructions. Until 2006, he directed the Paysage(s) photography agency, which distributed the work of some forty photographers. In 2023, he published Observer les paysages (Observing Landscapes) with Jean-Pierre Huguet, a book presenting the work of numerous Observatoires Photographiques des Paysages (Photographic Landscape Observatories). He has since continued his photographic and cinematographic work.
The Landscape Photography Observatories methodically capture changes and continuities in urban and rural landscapes. Initiated thirty years ago by the Ministry of the Environment, the Landscape Photography Observatories, like DATAR in its day, call upon the services of numerous photographers. These precise re-photographs, taken regularly over time in many different areas, show us what we do not know or cannot see about changes in the landscape.
