Patrick Desgraupes — VAT Collection

Patrick Desgraupes’ VAT Collection enters the vessel itself, revealing wine as a universe in motion.

Colour, fermentation and organic matter become luminous abstract forms—each circular composition evoking a planet, an eye or a living cell. Presented at large scale, the series connects the ancient craft of winemaking with a contemporary photographic language.

Patrick Desgraupes is a French photographer whose career began with large-format analogue landscape photography. His early Iceland exhibitions included presentations in Paris, Reykjavík and Brussels. Between 2003 and 2009 he published five landscape books, including three with La Martinière, and later developed a travelling exhibition programme with French National Parks and the French Ministry of Ecology.

From 2017, his practice moved towards a more contemporary exploration of photographic abstraction. The VAT Collection brings that development into the world of wine: close observation of fermentation and the interior surfaces of vats reveals changing colour, circular forms and organic patterns. His career links an established landscape practice with an interest in the visual transformations produced by natural processes.

2017

FujiFilm Award for Innovation, Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year.

2019

ND Fine Art Photographer of the Year, recorded in the artist’s official CV.

2025

Solo presentations at GUTKNECHT Gallery, Geneva, and Espace 22, Monaco.

Official biography & CV · 2017 award announcement

I wanted to reveal the sacred, cosmic and universal aspect of transformation.