Muriel Pénicaud, photographer
Author, speaker, business leader and committed woman
Self-portrait, 2024, India
Her passion for photography began at the age of 11 with a black and white Polaroid, where she discovered the art of framing and composition. At 23, a striking encounter with censorship revealed to her the power of images and their impact. Since then, she has combined her photographic practice with her social and professional commitments.
Inspired by Henri Cartier-Bresson's maxim, « "To photograph is to align the head, the eye and the heart."», Muriel Pénicaud demonstrates a profoundly humanistic approach. Through her lens, she captures fleeting moments, reveals invisible beauty, embraces the world's contradictions, awakens the imagination, and creates a deep connection between the viewer and the image.
Her photographs, whether of a bird in flight, the depth of a gaze, the meaning of a gesture, the soul of trees, or the liberation of women, reflect her quest for wonder and her social commitment. Her piezography prints reveal deep blacks from which light emerges.
Through series such as Wind under the Wings, Wind into the Soul, and Wind into the Roots, she explores powerful themes like origins, roots, nature, freedom, and the search for meaning. These series have been exhibited in Paris, Tokyo, Beijing, and in the Haute-Marne, Yvelines, and Vaucluse regions of France.
In 2024, the Collège des Bernardins in Paris is dedicating a monographic exhibition to her, Matrix of Worlds. She is also participating in the Photo Days festival in Paris, where her work is exhibited at We Are. In the same year, the prestigious publisher SKIRA is releasing her first collection of photographs, Matrices of Worlds, featuring 150 of her images. Accompanied by an introduction from the photographer REZA, this monograph highlights her humanistic and poetic photographic approach, offering a curious, sensitive, and engaged perspective.
In 2025, after exhibiting in Paris (Galerie Amarrage and Salon De Main de Maître), in Pondicherry, India, in Barcelona, as well as at the Museum of Photography in Saint-Louis and in Dakar, Senegal, her next exhibitions will take place in Athens, Paris, and Hyderabad. Winner of the 2024 Julia Margaret Cameron Award, which celebrates women photographers worldwide, as well as four other international distinctions, Muriel Pénicaud is also the president of the jury for three photographic competitions (the Immersion/s trade fair for crafts, the Regard - La Puissance du Lien award, and the Trophées Photo Jeunes d’avenir “Imagine your future”).
She is the author of several books, including her latest essay "Engaged" (Humensis, 2023) about her personal and professional commitment, and "Working Tomorrow" (Glénat), 2025), a documentary fiction about the future of work in the form of a graphic novel.
She is also the founder and president of the Sakura Foundation, dedicated to supporting emerging artists committed to societal issues.
As a former Minister of Labor, ambassador, and corporate CEO, she continues her commitment to women, youth, and art.
« Photography is my way of understanding the world, sharing my disbelief, distancing myself from violence, warding off nothingness, transforming my shock into enchantment, and igniting wonder. My dream is that the viewer becomes the narrator of their own story, soaring on the wings of the photograph they are looking at. Photography sharpens our gaze. It makes our relationship with the world more intense, richer, more beautiful, and more astonishing. In it, we share our dreams, our anxieties, our tales, and our imaginations. Photography changes our perspective. It is beautiful because it is accessible to all, simple in its gesture, capable of capturing the essence of a moment and transforming it into a trace of eternity. Photography invites us, modestly, if only for a moment, to let our senses vibrate and to enter together into the clearing of a more open and profound humanity. »
Solo Exhibitions
2026 (coming soon)
In cielo, in terra, Civico Museo Parisi Valle, Maccagno, Italy
2025
Shaping the Future - Matrice des Mondes, with the Citronne Gallery, Hellenic American University, Athens, Greece
The Shadow of Your Dreams, MuPho - Photography Museum of Saint-Louis and MuPho La Galerie, Dakar, Senegal
The Flight, Galerie Amarrage, Saint-Ouen, France
Deep Heights, Kalinka Gallery, Pondicherry, India
Wind into the Roots, The Spot, Pondicherry, India
2024
Matrix of Worlds, Photo Days Festival, We Are, Paris, France
Matrix of Worlds, Collège des Bernardins, Paris, France
2017
Wind under the Wings, Vallis Clausa Gallery, Vaucluse, France
Wind under the Wings, Unicorn Gallery, Beijing, China
Wind under the Wings, French Institute Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Wind under the Wings, Deyrolle Bookstore, Paris, France
Group Exhibitions
2025
Matrix of Worlds, Indian Photo Festival, Hyderabad, India
Games of Hands, Salon Immersion/s of exceptional arts and crafts (at FAFCEA), Paris, France
Matrix of Worlds, Exhibition of the Julia Margaret Cameron Award winners, FotoNostrum, Barcelona, Spain
Human at Work, Salon De Main de Maître, French Confederation of Artistic Crafts – CFMA, Bastille Design Center, Paris, France
2024
Salon Immersion/s of exceptional arts and crafts (at FAFCEA), Paris, France
2023
Wind into the Roots, Conversations Exhibition, Maison Laurentine, Aubepierre-sur-Aube, France
2019
Wind into the Soul, Galerie des passions, Sculptures en l’île Festival, Andrésy, France
2018
Wind under the Wings, Galerie des passions, Sculptures en l’île Festival, Andrésy, France
2017
Wind under the Wings, Ordinary Exhibition of Disaster / Permanence of Joy, L’Expédition, Châteauvillain, France
Awards
2025
The Builder – Honorable Mention, Architecture Category, MonoVisions Photography Awards
Eruption – Honorable Mention, Abstract Category, MonoVisions Photography Awards
Who are you, watching? – Honorable Mention, Nature and Wildlife Category, MonoVisions Photography Awards
2024
Overall Global Winner, Julia Margaret Cameron Award
Who are you, you who are watching? – Bronze Trophy, nature category, reFocus Awards
Endless – Honorable Mention, architecture category, reFocus Awards
As a family – Honorable Mention, street category, reFocus Awards
Homo Numericus – Winner of the “World's Largest Photo Competition” 2024-2025, graphic design category, PHOTO magazine
Publication
2024
Matrix of Worlds / Matrix of Worlds, photographic monograph, Skira editions, with an introduction by photographer, author and philanthropist REZA and Rachel Deghati, author and exhibition curator, and a preface by Maria Cristina Madau, artistic director.
Other
2025
Chair of the jury for the Avenirs Youth Photography Awards – "Imagine your future"
President of the jury for the photography prize Regard – The Power of Connection.
2024
President of the jury for the photographic competition of the Immersion/s trade fair for exceptional crafts