Gérard Rondeau (Châlons-sur-Marne April 10, 1953 – September 13, 2016) was born into a family of teachers, studied in Reims, and then, from 1974 to 1976, directed the Alliance Française in Kandy (Sri Lanka).
The discovery of Henri Cartier-Bresson's book on the USSR in the Alliance's library would be a revelation, and upon returning to Champagne, he dedicated himself continuously to photography, eventually becoming a regular contributor for over twenty years to "Le Monde."

For this publication, he created an extensive collection of portraits of contemporary painters and writers, forming unbreakable friendships with them. He photographed the painter Paul Rebeyrolle in action, traveled with the writer Yves Gibeau to the battlefields of World War I. With the writer Bernard Frank, he reflected on the paths of his life and sailed the Marne with Jean-Paul Kauffmann.
An tireless traveler, Gérard Rondeau traversed the world but remained deeply connected to his native region, Champagne, where he chose to live, observing with a fresh perspective the landscapes and people that characterize it. He rediscovered the hidden treasures of the Reims Cathedral, explored behind the scenes of museums for twenty years, recounted life in Sarajevo during the siege, portrayed contemporary Morocco in a timeless dialogue with the paintings and drawings of Delacroix, and described the hidden side of the Tour de France. For fifteen years, he accompanied the missions of Doctors of the World.

From the National Galleries of the Grand Palais in Paris to the National Gallery of Jakarta, from the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris to the Festival de la Luz in Buenos Aires, from the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne to the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin, Gérard Rondeau presented numerous solo exhibitions. In Istanbul, New York, Sarajevo, Rome, he created special series to exhibit his works in a creative and innovative way.

Gérard Rondeau travels in a black and white world, walks endless paths, seeks the trace of forgotten steps, plays with words, shadows, and silences, assembles stories, and reconstructs suffering worlds.
The Ettore Fico Museum is particularly proud to dedicate a retrospective and personal exhibition to this great artist of international photography.