François-Marie Banier Book order

The distinctive iconography of François-Marie Banier's latest body of work, Never stop dancing, stems from his unconditional interest in every single subject. Predominantly shot in Paris, New York, Brazil and Africa within the last couple of years, this book celebrates the good old days of analogue photography as much as human beings in all their diversity. Banier's dictum that "everybody is a piece of art" has materialized in this volume glooming in neatly printed black and white. François-Marie Banier was born in Paris in 1947. A novelist and playwright, he has also been taking photographs of public figures and anonymous people in the street since the 1970s. In 1991, the Centre Pompidou in Paris exhibited his photographic works for the first time, and further exhibitions have since been organized throughout Europe, in Asia and in America. The Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris presented a retrospective in 2003, exhibiting his "written" and "painted" photographs for the first time. He lives and works in Paris.

I have always had the dream to make books that would mirror a life formed by the wind pushing us, by the fires I always ignite much to the police's books that, like my photographs, my drawings, my writing - like an attitude - are not produced but crafted. Together with Martin d'Orgeval as the conductor, and Gerhard Steidl as the wizard-publisher, I have ventured to gather these energies and to follow my intuition, to adjoin one by one my spelling mistakes, my un-photogenic works, my pen's pirouettes, their reverberating souls - to take you with me through mountains of dreams over oceans of laughter and into my life shared with millions whose loving eyes rest on me. Autocar, Omnibus is a series of tailored books of indescribable forms linking the artist, who is driving the bus, with his readers/passengers who are often models, victims, fatally delivered to the camera's shutter and the drawn line; linking their fantasies, their needs for evasion, and offering shelter within these whimsical books.

Women, dogs, men, children they all like to play up. This accordion-style booklet shows how a line takes on a personality.

Every day, armed with his camera and usually driving his moped, François-Marie Banier leaves his home with no preconceived ideas in mind, simply the desire to discover what the world looks like on this particular day. Preferring the veracity of black and white, he focuses on street scenes in which the appearance and demeanour of faces and figures bear the marks of a particular life trajectory that has the power to touch our emotions — streetcleaners who look like mythological warriors, people out for a stroll, passers-by, couples, lonely figures — all have lived through experiences and trials that we can only guess at.