Nicolas Pascarel
French. Born on July 13, 1966 in Paris Montmartre, lived in Naples, Italy since 1999
Languages: French, Italian, English and Spanish
Photographer and Teacher
Official photographer of “Procida, Capital of Italian Culture 2022” –
Film Commision Regione Campania FCRC
Nicolas began photography in 1990 and worked as a freelance photo reporter for various newspapers and publishing houses such as Libération, Le Monde, L’Humanité, Globe, Courrier International, Ouest France, Il Manifesto, Internazionale, La Repubblica, Bangkok Post, Cambodge Soir, Hachette, Gallimard etc. His first photo reports concerned the closure of the last coal mine in the North of France, Cairo and Damascus during the first Gulf war, the Rome of Pasolini, motorcycle crime squads in Naples (squadra antiscippo), life in a circus in Paris…
In 1996, he left Paris to live in Havana for more than a year and produced his first personal work (Moros y cristianos) which led to his first exhibition in Paris (1997).
He returned to Havana just one year later in order to orient his work towards a more personal and artistic approach which he named “Una Vita Nuova”. It was the turning point of his career. This nostalgic work on Cuba opened the doors to the cultural section of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and led to the start of two personal exhibitions at the famous Fototeca de Cuba in December 1999 and then again in June 2001. During this second exhibition with the support of the Cuban Ministry of Culture, the French Embassy in Cuba and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he taught photography at the Institut Supérieur Artistique (ISA) in Cuba. This was the start of a series of collaborations with these different ministries and the French Embassy which will led him to teach at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh (2000, 2002 and 2005), in Ho Chi Minh city (Saigon) in Vietnam in 2005 and 2006, also in Bangkok and Chiang Rai in Thailand from 2002 until 2008.
In addition to teaching photography in the acadamies previously mentioned, Nicolas continued his personal research, particularly in Cambodia, where he spent five long years producing “Mémoire des années de pluie” (Memory of the Rainy Years), a contemporary story consisting of three parts from Cambodia, after the Pol Pot years what he defined as “the absence of memory”. This work was exhibited in Europe in a series of photo festivals and numerous galleries, but also with the help and collabration of the Ministry of Culture of Cambodia and France, in the Tuol Sleng S21 Genocide Museum and at the French Cultural Center from Phnom Penh in April 2005, for the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Khmer Rouge’s entry into the capital. To make this realistic, Nicolas collaborated from 2000 to 2003 with the NGOs Krousar Thmey, Handicap International and Friends which takes care of street children. These photos taken during the day and night shed light on the abandonment of children by families, malnutrition, problems linked to drug use, AIDS prevention and school reintegration. He work also with his cambodian students on the infamous and gigantic garbage mountain (Stung Meanchey) in Phnom Penh.
Also in 2005 and 2006, Nicolas worked with the help of his Vietnamese photography students on two different stories in Ho Chi Minh city (Saigon), “The blue corridor” and “At South of Cho Lon”. These two works were also exhibited in Europe and in Asia. Nicolas Pascarel has held more than 45 exhibitions in France, Italy, Germany, Holland, Spain, United States, Cuba, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, China and the Czech Republic.
In general, Pascarel’s photographic works speaks of memory, of places lost by time and as he defines himself as “photo saudade”. In 2006, Nicolas created the association Fotoasia which aimed to carry out intense photo internships in his favorite countries like Cambodia, Vietnam, Cuba and also Africa. Over 400 people of different nationalities followed his internships to experience a strong photographic but also human adventure. 70% of his customers returned year after year to these different internships. In addition to his personal workshop, Nicolas regularly works with the Largo Barrache Association in Naples where he sets up a long photo workshop with teenagers of the famous Spanish Quarter in order to gradually help them get out of a bad life (outside Mafia system).
In 2016, approaching 50 years old, he closed Fotoasia in order to pursue a new photo story, inspired by Michelangelo Antonioni’s critically acclaimed film « The Passenger », he created The Passenger Photography. The concept is to continue the full immersion photo workshops in Asia and Cuba, but to include new destinations with a new spirit and way of Life like Maputo in Mozambico and Sao Tomé and Principe in Africa. In Pascarel’s words « The Passenger Photography » encompasses photography, cinema, and atmospheres. It’s about certain parts of the world, mine, or those I lived, learned, loved, wanted and suffered. The Passenger is a self portrait of every element that has made my life, that of yesterday and today, sprinkled with mystery, vitality, unanswered questions to distant adventures, Saudade and love. The Passenger is an unfinished romance, as the life of a man who is still in search of what he seeks, disregarding the passing of time. For this, he realized two anothers long term personal project, one in Havana from 2012 until 2018, a poetic and melancholic story which he aptly entitled “The Passenger” and other one in Cambodia 2012 untill 2015, at “Kep sur mer”, former Saint Tropez of the Indochinese coast destroyed and buried under the jungle after 25 years of war.
Alongside « The Passenger » and always in Havana, Nicolas wrote his first novel in May 2017 “Un dimanche entre l’hiver et le printemps, 8 heures du matin et tout bascule.”
For the past 5 years Nicolas has been working on a photographic project entitled “Another Africa” or “L’Afrique Autrement” in particular in Maputo, Mozambique, and also in the small and lost island of Sao Tomé and Principe in the middle of no where. In this forgotten Africa, he finds the same sensations of adventure and wealth when he discovered Cambodia just 25 years ago to create the photo department at the Royal School of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh.
email: npascarel@hotmail.com
Nicolas Pascarel — Wikipédia (wikipedia.org)
https://www.facebook.com/pascarelnicolas/
Most Important Exhibitions
2018. Germany. Darmstadt. Fotogalerie Weiber Turm. Le Passager
2016. Italy. Naples. Spazio Kromia. Winter in America
2015. France. Biarritz. Festival Amériques Latines 2015. Antes de la noche
2014. Italy. Naples. PAN (Palazzo Arti Napoli) : S21 of Roberto Arcangeli
2014. Italy. Naples. Gallery D’Ayala6. Kep sur mer, Cambodia
2012. Italy. Naples. Largo Baracche. Antes de la noche, Habana
2011. Italy. Naples. French Cultural Centre of Naples: Gilberto, Le Cri
2011. Italy. Naples. Gallery Interno56: Border Life
2011. Italy. Naples. Castel Del’Ovo: L’Infinito Instante
2011. Italy. Capri. Museum of Certosa of San Giacomo: L’infinito Instante
2011. Italy. Naples. Gallery 1 Opera: Il Malecon
2008. Thailand. Bangkok. PhotoArtAsia at Central World : Short cut memory
2008. Singapore. First Biennale of International Photography: The blue corridor
2008. Italy. Naples. Largo Baracche : Ncoppa’e Quartieri
2008. Indonesia. Jakarta. Goethe Institute “Another Asia”: The blue corridor
2007. USA. San Antonio, Texas “Fotoseptiembre Safoto” : Una vita nuova
2007. Italy. Naples. Gallery Trip: 106° 39’ 7’’E 10° 49’ 8’’N
2007. Czech Rep. Prague. Gallery Langhans : The blue corridor
2006. Italy. Sorrento. Photo Gallery: The blue corridor
2006. Germany. Siegen. Gallery Thomas Kellner : Short cut memory
2006. Italy. Roma. Gallery Santa Cecilia: At South of Cho Lon
2006. Holland. Noorderlicht Photofestival “Another Asia”: The blue corridor
2006. China. Qinghai International Photography Festival: The blue corridor
2006. Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh city. Museum of Fine Arts: The blue corridor
2005. Italy. Genova. Europeen Cultural Centre of Genova: Genova scatti europei
2005. Cambodia. French Cultural Centre of Phnom Penh and Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum S21: Mémoire des années de pluie
2005. Italy. Rome. International Festival of Photography “Oriented” Museo di Roma in Trastevere: Mémoire des années de pluie
2004. Italy. Venice. Gallery Immagina: Shorts cut memory
2003. France. La Romieu. Gallery of contemporary art: Shorts cut memory
2002. France. Honfleur. International festival of photography: Shorts cut memory
2001. Spain. Ténérife. Fotonoviembre: Una vita nuova
2001. Cuba. Havana. Fototeca of Cuba: Una vita nuova
2001. France. Lectoure. Gallery of contemporary art: Mémoire des années de pluie
2000. France. Biarritz. International festival of Photography “Visa pour l’image” : Una vita nuova
2000. France. Saint Pierre. Gallery of contemporary art: Una vita nuova
1999. Cuba. Havana. Fototeca of Cuba: Moros y cristianos
1999. France. Toulouse. Le Château d’Eau: Moros y cristianos
1999. Italy. Naples. Villa Savonarola Contemporary art: Una vita nuova
1998. Italy. Naples. Palazzo Carafa della Spina: Moros y cristianos
1998. France. Nantes. Festival of 3 Continents: Moros y cristianos
1998. Italy. Padoue. Galleria Adelphi of contemporary art: Moros y cristianos
1998. Germany. Kologne. Der Spiegel Gallery : Moros y cristianos
1997. France. Paris. Cinéma des Cinéastes : Moros y cristianos
1996. France. Paris. Espace Commines : Le Caire
Curator Photo Exhibition
2023. Germany. Darmstadt. Weiber Turm photo gallery : “Casablanca” of Heba Mansour
2023. Germany. Darmstadt. Weiber Turm photo gallery : “Ballade à la pluie” of Gokhan Kayal
2014. Italy. Naples. PAN (Palazzo Arte Moderna) : S-21 of Roberto Arcangeli.
2006. Italy. Rome. Gallery Santa Cecilia : “At south of Cho lon” Saigon Vietnam of Nam Bui The Trong
Teacher of Photography
2014 to 2024. Germany. Darmstadt. EUMETSAT (European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites
2002 to 2008. Thailand. Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai and Bangkok. University Mae Fah Luang, Ambassy of France in Bangkok, French Institute of Chiang Rai and Bangkok, French Ministry of Foreign Affairs
2012. Italy. Naples. Scuola media D.Savio di Secondigliano
2008. Italy. Naples. Largo Baracche SABU “Ragazzi dei quartieri spagnoli”
2008. Thailand. Bangkok. Siam Paragon Center “School of Art”
2007. Italy. Naples. Lanificio 25 Contemporary Art “memory and photography”
2005. Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh City. French Institute of Ho Chi Minh city and Vietnam-French cultural cooperation IDECAF, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
2001 and 1999. Cuba. Havana. Fine Art Institute of Havana ISA and Fototeca de Cuba, Ministry of Culture of Cuba, French Ambassy in Cuba
2000 to 2002. Cambodia. Phnom Penh. French Cultural Centre of Phnom Penh, Royal Academy of Fine Arts, French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, French Ambassy in Cambodia and Ministry of Culture of Cambodia.
Writing books (novels)
” Un dimanche entre l’hiver et le printemps, 8 heures du matin et tout bascule”. French language 2017
Documentary Film
2008. “’Ncoppa ‘e Quartieri” Naples Italy. 32 minutes
2004. “During the rain” Phnom Penh Cambodia. 52 minutes
Working with NGOs
2000 to 2003 Cambodia. Phnom Penh. Photographic work on abandoned children on the streets of Phnom Penh with the NGOs Krousar Thmey, Handicap International and Friends (education, AIDS, drugs, familly problems, health care, living in a bidonville on garbage…)
Cinema and TV
Photographer for set location cinema – Film Commision Regione Campania FCRC “Sguardi d’Autore”
Reportage Assistant with France 2 and France 3 TV in Naples
Exhibition in Phnom Penh, S21 Tuol Sleng Museum and Centre Culturel Français 2005