Graphic designer, press photographer, artistic director for several magazines, Xavier Barral founded in 1992, along with Annette Lucas, Atalante, a visual creation and cultural communication agency. Concurrently, Barral worked with a number of publishing houses, creating fine arts books and exhibition catalogues. In 2002, he created Editions Xavier Barral which publishes books taking 
a visual approach to the new shapes of photography, contemporary art, and science. Roger Caillois, Sophie Calle, Clément Chéroux, Raphaël Dallaporta, Anouck Durand, Antoine d’Agata, Raymond Depardon, Jean Gaumy, Emmet Gowin, Rinko Kawauchi, Josef Koudelka, Sergio Larrain, Martin Parr, Stephen Shore, and Hiroshi Sugimoto
 are among its recently published authors.