Andrew French

Andrew French has spent his career working in both photography and film, inspired by the intersection of the two mediums. He began his career traveling the world as an assistant to legendary photographers and filmmakers including Mary Ellen Mark, Annie Leibovitz, John Dominis, Art Kane, Ilse Bing and Ruth Orkin, among others. His work with Orkin, whose collaboration with Morris Engel on The Little Fugitive—a major influence on the French New Wave—also shaped his own cinematic sensibility. His film work includes Buskers, an award-winning short about street performers in New York City, and he is currently developing a feature-length film project. His television credits include working as a cinematographer for MTV, MTV Sports, VH1, Comedy Central, and PBS Kids and as producer for The Jane Pratt Show.

Andrew has contributed camera and lighting work for special stills on the films Agnes of God, Cocoon, Crossroads, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, and Prizzi’s Honor. He provided original images that became part of the visual design and video projections for the Broadway production of Impressionism, starring Jeremy Irons and Joan Allen and directed by Jack O’Brien. His editorial work includes assignments for TIME, Esquire, Food & Wine, Town & Country, House & Garden, O, The Oprah Magazine, Bloomberg, Fast Company, Inc., Women’s Health, and Men’s Journal and commercial work for COACH, Nordstrom, Peloton, New York Stock Exchange, T-Mobile, Microsoft, and Sony/Epic. His images have been published in The Polaroid Book and Brothers by Esquire, and have received awards from Polaroid, the Society of Publication Designers, the New York Art Directors Club and the Connecticut Art Directors Club.

Andrew holds a B.A. in Education from Eastern Illinois State University and was a founding arts educator for Camp Sunshine, a program that pioneered inclusion of children with disabilities into education and integrating arts into teaching. He traveled the U.S. leading workshops for the program, which became a national model for the National Committee on Arts for the Handicapped, founded by Jean Kennedy Smith. He has served on the faculty at NYU, the School of Visual Arts, the Bronx Documentary Center, the International Center of Photography, and the Penumbra Foundation. He also has been a guest lecturer at the Pennsylvania College of Art & Design, a visiting artist instructor at Shakerag Workshops at St. Andrew’s-Sewanee School and leads workshops around the world, as well as in his turn-of-the-century daylight studio in Union Square.

AWARDS:

Polaroid
The Society of Publication Designers
Photo District News
the New York Art Directors Club
the Connecticut Art Directors Club.

COURSES:

Frame & Sequence
First-Person Narrative
Sight & Sound Studio

Education:

Eastern Illinois University BA in Education 1978