Born in 1949 in Toulouse. 

Lives and works in Biarritz.


Claude Nori discovered photography in 1968 at a time when he imagined he was destined to be a film director. In 1974, he came to Paris, became friends with Bernard Plossu and founded, with a group of photographers and critics, Contrejour, a review, publishing house and gallery in Montparnasse. The premises quickly became a gathering place for people particularly interested in getting New Photography out into the world.

In 1976, after having worked at Vogue and Daily Telegraph Magazine, Nori released his first photography book, Lunettes, prefaced by Agnès Varda, followed by a novel, published by Éditions de Seuil, focused on the photographer Donna Ferrato. Several films and books devoted to themes of adolescence and Italy then followed. In 1981, he published La Photographie française des origines à nos jours (French Photography from the Beginnings Until Today), which was republished in 2010 by Éditions Flammarion. In 1984, he participated in Viaggio in Italia, Luigi Ghirri’s project, which was one of the very first subjective photographic campaigns about Italy. In 1999, with his wife Isabella Nori, he founded the Terre d’Images festival in Biarritz, the Photo Nouvelles review and Revista magazine.

In June 2011, after an interruption of more than 15 years, he breathed new life into Éditions Contrejour and published La Géométrie du flirt (The Geometry of Flirting), followed by Jours heureux au pays basque (Pleasant Days in the Basque Country). His latest exhibitions took place at Festival Photomed and the Château d’Eau in Toulouse.


Claude Nori presented his work at the Rencontres d’Arles in 2012: Contrejour, A french assertion at the couvent Saint-Césaire.


Portrait of Claude Nori : courtesy of Isabelle Nori.