Portrait and documentary photography. Geneva.
First exhibition: Focale O, 1988.

Since 1988, holding the gaze of the other:
portraits, migration, deafness, blindness, AIDS...

Mapping poster
Mapping
Denis

Ponté

Photographer

Geneva, 1964

4 × 5 view camera · Polaroid negative · anaglyphs

02

To photograph someone is to
accept that you do not know
what will appear.

An independent practice, developed outside institutional constraints: from AIDS to cataract, from Geneva to Ouagadougou, from the streets of New York to the workshops of Abidjan.

7 books published
since 1994
38 years of photography,
first encounter in 1988
2 third prizes at the Nikon
Photo Contest International
1992–93 and 1994–95
03

Reportages & Portraits

The heart of the work. Studio or daylight, 4 × 5 inch view camera or 35 mm
a face, an exposure, a presence willing to face the lens.

Cayo Coco, Cuba
01
child at the blackboard, Cochabamba, Bolivia
02
Perișoru railway station
03
New York, Left for Dead
04
Portrait of a woman before cataract surgery
05
Stop on a Cuban road
06
Osborne bull (Toro de Osborne)
07
Children in Vietnam
08
Lourdes
09
04

Light Table

Drag →

Cataract campaign, Mozambique
01 Cataracte, Mozambique
Homo artifex, workshop gesture
02 Homo artifex
Cuianos
03 Cuianos
Passé décomposé, Geneva
04 Passé décomposé
Cataracte, prisoner
05 Cataracte, prisoner
Navigation in Laos
06 Laos
Cataracte, portrait
07 Cataracte
Jean-Claude Dioma, Minister of Culture, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 2015
08 Jean-Claude Dioma, Minister of Culture, Ouagadougou
After the Storm, Ebro Delta, tuna, 2020
09 After the Storm, Ebro Delta
face à elle
10 face à elle
Tiebery Dam
11 Homo artifex, Tiebery Dam, Burkina Faso
Manhattan from New Jersey
12 Manhattan
Vinaròs, Spain
13 Vinaròs, Spain
Route du Faso
14 Route du Faso
Cataracte, Costa do Sol Beach, Maputo, 2023
15 Cataracte, Costa do Sol Beach, Maputo
Portraits parlés, a woman signing in front of the camera
16 Portraits parlés
Barber, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
17 Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Lake Titicaca
18 Lake Titicaca
05

A Voice on an Image

Adèle, photographic portrait made with a 4 × 5 inch view camera using Polaroid 55 negative
Adèle, portrait made on Polaroid 55 film
“I would be tempted to see them, in a sense, as almost self-portraits, so true, faithful and honest is the transcription. I therefore chose one image, Adèle. Fascinated, I should say, by that dead eye, but also by the extraordinary presence of the person, by the evidence of existence, by the strength of both the subject and the photographer.”

Charles-Henri Favrod

Journalist, writer and founder of the Musée de l'Élysée, Switzerland’s first museum dedicated to photography.

First encounter in Vevey, 1992.

In 1998, he chose the image of Adèle and recorded his commentary on it.

00:00 / 01:34

Original recording, 1 min 34 — Denis Ponté archives

06

Series & Projects

Long-term bodies of work, almost all extended into a book, film or exhibition.

01 Cataracte Mozambique · book 2025 Surgical campaigns by UOSSM in Mozambique. A book published by Slatkine in 2025, 176 pages. 02 Homo artifex Côte d'Ivoire, Geneva · 2020 — 2021 A three-part body of work on migration: a 62-minute documentary film, an exhibition and a book. “So that migrants have a voice, a precise face.” 03 Portraits Geneva, West Africa · since 1988 04 Portraits parlés Egypt, Spain, West Africa · since 2016 Portraits made with deaf people: sign language enters the frame, gesture becomes speech. 05 face à elle Geneva · 2015 06 Route du Faso Burkina Faso · part of Homo artifex A road journal made as part of Homo artifex: the road, the workshops, the gestures of those who leave and those who remain.
07

Books

Seven books, from 1994 to the present.

Photographs by Denis Ponté
Cover of the book Cataracte, photographs by Denis Ponté

Cataracte

Publisher
Slatkine, 2025
Texts
Philippe Constantin
Foreword
Dr Raphaël Pitti, Thierry Apothéloz, Alfonso Gomez
Language
French / English
Pages
176 p.
ISBN
978-2-8321-1408-7
Price
Fr. 49.–

Available

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Order ↗
Cover of the book Homo artifex, photographs by Denis Ponté

Homo artifex

Publisher
Place-Neuve, 2021
Texts
Serge Desarnaulds
Foreword
Marino Cuenat, Philippe Macasdar, Carmen García Almenar
Language
French / Spanish
Pages
180 p. — 105 photographs
ISBN
978-2-8399-1550-2
Price
Pay what you wish

Available

homo-artifex.ponte.pro ↗ Order ↗
Cover of the book face à elle, photographs by Denis Ponté

face à elle

Publisher
Favre, 2015
Foreword
Serge Desarnaulds
Language
French
Format
30 × 29 cm
ISBN
978-2-8289-1487-5
Price
Fr. 36.–

Available

faceaelle.ch ↗ Order ↗
Cover of the book Histoires de vivre, photographs by Denis Ponté

Histoires de vivre

Publisher
Wesakeditions, 1998
Text
Sylviane Guérin
Language
French
Subject
HIV / AIDS, Geneva

Out of print

Cover of the book Polaroid Act I, photographs by Denis Ponté

Polaroid Act I

Publisher
Déponence, 1998
Language
French
Subject
Portraits made with Polaroid 55 film
CD-ROM
Multimedia

Out of print

Cover of the book Au bord du monde, photographs by Denis Ponté

Au bord du monde

Publisher
Abracadabra, 1995
Text
Isabelle Maillard Rilliet
Foreword
Jean-François Labarthe
Language
French
Edition
650 numbered copies
ISBN
2-88086-044-X

Out of print

Cover of the book Left for Dead, photographs by Denis Ponté

Left for Dead

Publisher
Olizane, 1994
Texts
Philippe Constantin
Language
French / English
ISBN
2-88086-151-9
In support of
Coalition for the Homeless, New York
Edition
Two numbered screenprints by Albertine (1994, 26 × 28 cm, 200 copies) were produced to support the book

Last copies — very limited availability

08

Press

Print media, television and radio from 1988 to the present.

1988 Première rencontre — Focale O, first exhibition PDF ↗ 1988 Passé décomposé — Musée Jean Tua PDF ↗ 1990 Contraste PDF ↗ 1991 Maine — Galerie Europa PDF ↗ 1992 Vevey School of Photography PDF ↗ 1992 Left for Dead — first articles PDF ↗ 1993 Cadavre exquis — Galerie Europa PDF ↗ 1994 Couleur café — Galerie Faits Divers PDF ↗ 1994 Left for Dead — press coverage PDF ↗ 1994 Esperanza PDF ↗ 1995 Au bord du monde — press coverage PDF ↗ 1998 Histoires de vivre — press coverage PDF ↗ 2018 London PDF ↗ 2021 Homo artifex — Leica Blog PDF ↗ 2024 Scènes Magazine PDF ↗ 2025 Le Temps — Cataracte PDF ↗ 2025 Le Courrier, 28 October PDF ↗ 2025 Bilan — Étienne Dumont PDF ↗ 2025 Ensemble No. 279 PDF ↗ 2025 La Voz — Catarata, Sagunto PDF ↗ 2025 El Levante — opening exhibition PDF ↗ 2026 Planète Santé, 19 January PDF ↗ 2026 Écho Magazine No. 9 PDF ↗ 2026 L'Écho du Gros-de-Vaud, 15 May PDF ↗ 2026 Corridor Éléphant, 14 July PDF ↗ 2026 Cataracte — complete press dossier PDF ↗
09

Career

First exhibition in 1988 at Focale O, with Première rencontre. He graduated from the Vevey School of Photography in 1992, winning first prize, and has since produced reportage in South America for Terre des Hommes, in Romania for the Geneva Red Cross, and on public-health issues — HIV/AIDS with Histoires de vivre, and cataract in Mozambique.

He has taught photography at the University of Geneva since 2004, on the Certificate of Visual Studies from 2018 to 2024, and at the Société genevoise de photographie (SGP) since 2023. Founding member of Éditions Place-Neuve.

Wikipedia entry ↗
1988

First exhibition — Focale O, Première rencontre

1992

CFC, Vevey School of Photography — first prize

1992–95

Two third prizes in consecutive editions at the Nikon Photo Contest International, Japan

1993–95

Galerie Faits Divers, Geneva — founding member

1994

Left for Dead — published in support of the Coalition for the Homeless, New York

1995

Au bord du monde — Musée international de la Croix-Rouge

1998

Polaroid Act I and Histoires de vivre

2004

Éditions Place-Neuve — founding member. Teaching photography at the University of Geneva.

2015

face à elle — book and exhibitions at Centre culturel Saint-Gervais, Bain des Pâquis and Librairie arabe

2020–21

Homo artifex — documentary film, 62 min
A three-part project: an exhibition, a book and a film.
Screenings in Geneva, Sion and Valencia, Spain.

2026

Cataracte — Corridor Éléphant, Fondation Le Quadratin, Ferme Sarrasin