In the 70s, Wilfrid Rouff was an assistant to master Art Director Oliviero Toscani (United Colors of Benetton); for a few years, he was an active member of Groupe Untel—described by artist Ben Vautier as “very close to my street actions of the 1960s and to Fluxus.” Some of the most avant-garde galleries of the 80s showed his work: J&J Donguy, La Boutique Sentimentale, and Galerie Satellite in Paris, C Space and White Columns in New York City. At the invitation of Jean Dupuy, his work was shown at the Centre Pompidou in Paris as part of the show Anti-Pub. Canadian critic Yan Rucar called his work “irreverently humorous.”
Also in the 80s, Carrie Donovan, chief fashion editor for The New York Times Magazine, commissioned him to photograph backstage for the Couture and Ready-to-Wear Collections in Paris and New York. For close to a decade, he was one of a handful to focus his singular lens on the models and the clothes of this golden era of fashion.
During the 90s, Wilfrid Rouff became a member of the pedagogical team at L’Ecole des Arts & Métiers de l’Image MI21 in Montreuil-sous-Bois, just outside Paris. Also known as l’Ecole Autrement, this alternative art school thrived for a decade.
In the 2000s, his work was shown in the networks of the French Institutes. In particular, he was invited to Lagos in 2002 where he conducted workshops on animated GIFs, and in 2007 to the Jakarta International Photo Summit where his workshops focused on ‘second-long photographs’. He also showed and performed at La Savonnerie in Brussels in 2009 and at the French Institute of Valencia in 2010.
