Sebastien LEBEGUE

Sébastien Lebègue is a French photographer and documentary journalist who has lived in Tokyo since 2008. His work takes him across Asia and the South Pacific, and he is drawn to stories about people on the margins — social and cultural minorities whose lives rarely make it into mainstream media.  
He was represented by the Gamma-Rapho photo agency (2010-2019), served as art director of Eclectiques Magazine (2010-2021), and was a member of the Tokyo-Ga photographers collective (2010-2022).  In 2012 he was a finalist for the Bourse du Talent #49 award and won the Grand Prize at the Sophot Social Photo Contest for his report on Ishinomaki and Onagawa after 2011 disaster, a project exhibited  in London, Paris, and Brussels. 
He has published three books: Ka’oha nui (2010), Passeport pour Tokyo (2010), and a major project, Coutume Kanak (2018), that include a two-year documentary on Kanak customs in New Caledonia(2013-2015), and several exhibitions shown at Tjibaou Cultural center in Noumea, in Fiji, Paris, and in Tokyo at Roppongi Hills City view Gallery, the Institut Français and Maison Franco Japonaise (2014-2020). From 2018, he started a long term project on Pacific Area on Trans Identities.
In Tokyo he runs IKONO Photography (from 2018), a service dedicated to businesses and institutions, IKONO Art (from 2021), representing artist and photographers and curating their exhibition, and opened recently STUDIO IKONO, an artist residence in Narita.