Solo exhibitions

Watasia, Les Mesnographies festival, Les Mesnuls, France, 2027, scheduled

Døgnvill, Aerolite, Photodoc, Paris, France, 2026, scheduled

Døgnvill, Itinéraires des photographes voyageurs festival, with a fragrance, a sound journey and a spiral on the floor installation, to trigger a vertigo feeling, in collaboration with Claude and Benoît Luy (perfumes), Ophir Lévy, Priscille Villerelle, Pascal Bricard, Théo Grammont (sound) and Vincent Bengold, Bordeaux, France, 2025

Døgnvill, Les Arches citoyennes, Paris, France, 2024

Døgnvill, Halsnøy Kloster, Norway, 2023

Aerolite, Mots-Clés, Paris, France, 2022

Shards of life, La Philharmonie de Paris, France, 2016

Striking back, Soho, Mulhouse, France, 2011

Striking back, La Mécanique ondulatoire, Paris, France, 2010

Striking back, Eclat de Mode, Paris, France, 2010

Group exhibitions

Watasia, Festival Off Arles, projection, Arles, France, 2026, scheduled

Watasia, The Essaouira Photo Rendez-vous, projection, Essaouira, Morocco, 2025

Døgnvill, Photo Bridge, Halle des Blancs Manteaux, Paris, France, 2025

Døgnvill, House of Wonders, Sunnhordland Museum, Halsnøy Kloster, Norway, 2025

Watasia, Archifoumi, Les Arches citoyennes, Paris, France, 2024

Aerolite, Espace Coco, with Valérie Fougeirol, curator, Paris, France, 2023

Electric Azure, Manuel Rivera-Ortiz foundation, projection, Arles, France, 2021

Is madness a CRY?, Fanton courtyard, Arles, France, 2019

Performances 

Cercles by Boris Charmatz, participation to a performance with 200 dancers and Boris Charmatz’s company, Grand Palais, Paris, France, 2025

Watasia, video, photo performances and sound projection, with Sebastien Siraudeau, Essaouira, Morocco, 2025

The way of flowers, prologue, Les Arches citoyennes, performances and installations with suspended flowers, inspired from japanese ikebana, with Aurore Monteil, Paris, France, 2025 / Aurore Monteil : https://4astudio.carbonmade.com/

Watasia, performance and installation, “The glorious siesta”, with Aurore Monteil, Les Arches citoyennes, Paris, France, 2024

Døgnvill, a photo projection with holistic scents, for an audience, with Claude et Benoît Luy, Les Arches citoyennes, Paris, France, 2023

Døgnvill, collective naps to trigger surrealistic staged photography, with theatre students, Halsnøy Kloster, Norway, 2022

Døgnvill, video performance, the body, completely painted in red by three strangers, on the seashore, Halsnøy Kloster, Norway, 2022

Watasia, a series of photographic performances involving strangers, for photos staged on the spot, Banyuls-sur-Mer, France, 2022

James Blonde, a video conference discussion recorded during the Covid-19 pandemic, in which the character James Blonde speaks a secret language, Paris, France, 2020

Ego crash test, video and photo performance confronting my ego, with Joris Bazin, Sénart forest, France, 2019

My ass, photo-performance, a poetic, furtive appearing of My ass in the landscape, with Ophir Lévy, Portugal and Spain, 2000

Hornolulu, photo-performance, running around the island of Oahu in 5 days, 230 km with my camera, with Ken Amstrong, head of Habitat for Humanity, Hawaii, United-States, 1998

Residencies

Riad Chbanate, with Oeildeep, Watasia, Essaouira, Morocco, 2025

Les Arches citoyennes, Watasia, Paris, France, 2024

Sunnhordland Museum, Døgnvill, Halsnøy Kloster, Norway, 2022

Cosprons, with Eyes in Progress, Watasia, Banyuls-sur-Mer, France, 2022

Awards, grants

Selected, Mentor award, Freelens, The Comédie française lovers, Arles, France, 2026

Finalist, Fotograf magazine open call, Døgnvill, Prague, Czech Republic, 2026

Selected, Mentor award, Freelens, Døgnvill, Bordeaux, France, 2025

Shortlisted, Malevoz cultural district, Watasia, Malevoz, Switzerland, 2024

Shortlisted, Tremplin Jeunes Talents, Watasia, Deauville, France, 2022, 2023 et 2024

Collections

Sunnhordland Museum, Halsnøy, Norvège

Publications

Døgnvill, House of Wonders, exhibition catalog, Norvège, 2025

Electric Azure, 9 lives magazine, France, 2021

Technicolor future, 9 lives magazine, France, 2020

Is madness a CRY?, Arles workshops gallery, France, 2019

 

EDUCATION

2006 – 2026: TRAINING COURSES and MENTORING

OEILDEEP, masterclass, with Sonia Seraidarian, Laura Serani, Jean-Christian Bourcart and Stefano De Luigi, France, 2025-2026

WELL DONE JOHN, developing your work as an author with Laure Bouvet and Marie Valat, France, 2025

PHOTODOC, photo-biography, with Valentin Bardawil and Christine Delory-Momberger, France, 2025

LA.IMA, several mentoring sessions, with Oleñka Carrasco and Ioana Mello, France, 2025

OEILDEEP, beyond the sight, with Diana Lui, Morocco, 2025

PARFUMS D’EVEIL, holistic perfumery, with Claude and Benoît Luy, Switzerland, 2024

LA.IMA, several mentoring sessions, with Oleñka Carrasco and Ioana Mello, France, 2024

L’OEIL DE L’ESPRIT, photobook making, with Eric Cez (éditions Loco) and Marie Sepchat (The(M) éditions), France, 2023

LES GOBELINS, Photoshop advanced training, France, 2022

EYES IN PROGRESS, create a photographic story in immersion, with Claudine Doury, France, 2022

OEILDEEP, masterclass, with Sonia Seraidarian, Laura Serani, Jean-Christian Bourcart and Stefano De Luigi, France, 2019-2020

LES RENCONTRES, finding your photographic language, with Jean-Christian Bourcart, France, 2019

EYES IN PROGRESS, developement in the artistic milieu, with Valérie Fougeirol, France, 2019

INA – TENDANCE FLOUE, organising a photo exhibition, with Mat Jacob, France, 2015

ENS LOUIS LUMIERE, Chroma and Raw development, France, 2013

EMI – CFD, digital photography, France, 2006

2002 – 2003: PARIS I university

Advanced Studies Diploma, in African Anthropology with compliments of the Jury

1996 – 2000: SCIENCES PO PARIS

Graduate in the Department of Communication and Human Resources (CRH)
Certificate of International Studies, London School of Economics, 1997-1998

LANGUAGES

Triathlon
Ecstatic danse
Clown theatre
Singing in a choir

 

BIO

Benjamin Barda carried out his first photo projects in Africa. A graduate in political science and anthropology, he initially worked as a journalist for several years.

He chose photography in 2009, in particular portraiture and staging, turning his attention to marginalised worlds, such as young people reintegrating society through boxing, or chibanis (elderly North African workers) in a social housing complex.

In 2019, he began a long-term personal project on the theme of the inner journey: he revisited his archives, produced self-portraits and performances. He questions the nature of our deep connection with images, or how they relate to unconscious mental and spiritual imprints.

In a society that has become epileptic, his obsessions become the matrix of his work: questioning imbalance, acceleration and vertigo.

Are we on the edge of the abyss?

Between falling and ecstasy, between memory and amnesia, he wonders about the place of man, his identity.

In 2021, he began a dreamlike and surrealist series, exploring madness through the allegorical character of a young woman (Aerolite). On this theme, he was selected to take part in the Sunnhordland Museum artist residency at Halsnøy Monastery in Norway in 2022, where he produced the Døgnvill series on the relationship between states of expanded consciousness and photography. He exhibited this series in Norway, in Paris at Les Arches Citoyennes, and in Bordeaux at the Itinéraires des Photographes Voyageurs festival.

He also explores social issues through fiction, often with a humorous tone, and by creating slightly offbeat characters, which he sometimes plays himself. An invitation to imagine a new world where laughter has triumphed over anxiety.

To talk about our hurried times, he has created Watasia, a multifaceted artistic project, the story of a utopian country that produces and sells naps to the whole world.

 

All photographs and frescoes on this site are protected by copyright:
© Benjamin BARDA – Use without authorisation is prohibited.