Born in 1977, Yann Stofer is a photographer, musician, and filmmaker. He explores the world from an unconventional angle, armed with a singular gaze and an insatiable curiosity. Between the stage, the road, and the cinema, his journey reflects a state of perpetual motion and an imagination fueled by travel. Self-taught and independent, his images convey a need for freedom—if not a need for wandering.
He regularly collaborates with international media and works on advertising campaigns. His work is part of the Hermès collection, and he has developed several personal projects that have been published: "Hokkaido is blue, white and gold" (2022), "You can’t always kill everyone in the end. In the sleep of Harry Crews" (2020), "Japanes only" (2023), and "Thick Blood, Among the Untouchables of Japan", in collaboration with the writer Jérôme Schmidt.
Before his photographic work, Yann Stofer was a drummer—first with bands in Bordeaux (France), and then for over 10 years across Europe and the United States with the electro-rock group Adam Kesher. This gave him the opportunity to collaborate on albums and music for commercials with Cassius, Phoenix, A-Trak, and also with brands such as Agnès B, Yves Saint Laurent, and Chanel.
Alongside music, he turned to directing for a time and began working on film sets in the early 2000s as a first assistant director. It was close to the cameras and cinematographers that he sharpened his eye and honed his skills. He documented his band’s wild ten-year journey on the road, capturing fragments of real or imagined scenes between cities and concerts—later compiled like a travel diary in his first book, "A house is not a home" (2013), published by Kaiserin editions.
His experiences shape his approach: dynamic, participatory, and intimate, often subverting the conventions of classical or documentary storytelling. He was quickly sought after to shoot photo reports and portraits for magazines and album covers. Regular commissions have taken him across continents—for print media (The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Vice), advertising (Heineken, Uber, Nike), and photographic documentary (Le Monde, Air France Magazine, Le Nouvel Obs). As a passionate traveler, he has developed a road-inspired imagination in tune with a state of constant movement. Instinctive, he sparks connections with others, swiftly capturing the heart of an action or the atmosphere of a place, bringing his lens as close as possible to his subjects.
For the past ten years, he has been working on several personal projects simultaneously:
Poursuite, a visually unsettling narrative set in the desert-like backdrop of a Costa Blanca town (Spain), in collaboration with fellow photographer Julien Magre and written by novelist and reporter Alexandre Kauffmann.
Évry danse, a series of portraits of ballroom dancers during the Internationals, staged in surprising fashion between the dressing rooms and the dance floor, against a backdrop of an improvised studio.
Since 2018, he has been conducting a photographic investigation (You can’t always kill everyone in the end) on noir novelist Harry Crews and his hometown Gainesville (Florida, USA), composing the man’s biography through the ambiance of the places. This project has received support from the DRAC Nouvelle-Aquitaine.
His photographs are regularly exhibited in France and abroad, and have entered private collections, including that of Hermès since 2018. In early 2020, he created a series of images in the enigmatic landscapes of northern Japan: Hokkaido, exhibited at the Promenades Photographiques in Vendôme (France) in 2020 and featured in his most recent book "Hokkaido is blue, white and gold", published in 2022.