Alain Schroeder

Alain Schroeder (Belgium) is a Belgian documentary photographer and visual storyteller whose career spans more than four decades. While studying photography at Saint-Luc in Liège, he spent countless hours in the library exploring art, Surrealism, graphic design and photography. A solo journey to Afghanistan in 1974 became an early creative turning point, changing the way he saw and confirming his ambition to tell stories through images.

Alain’s professional career began unexpectedly in sports photography. A keen tennis player, he was asked to photograph a tournament when another photographer was unavailable. His understanding of the game gave him an instinct for anticipating the action, and within weeks he was photographing international tournaments in Toronto and New York. During the 1980s, his images of major sporting events and leading athletes appeared on more than 500 magazine covers.

After expanding into books and editorial assignments covering travel, art, culture and human-interest stories, Alain co-founded the Belgian photo agency Reporters in 1989. As the agency’s Chief Operating Officer, he helped guide it from the golden years of analogue photography into the digital era. In 2013, he sold his shares, exchanged agency life for life on the road and returned to the kind of personal documentary stories he had dreamed of creating as a photography student.

Alain does not see himself as a single-image photographer. Working in carefully edited series, he aims to tell a complete story in 10 to 15 photographs. His projects explore people, traditions and social issues around the world, often beginning with a small detail discovered in a magazine, a conversation or an unexpected encounter. Combining research, persistence and a willingness to experiment with unusual viewpoints, his work carries traces of the Surrealist art that inspired him as a young photographer.

His photo essays have received extensive international recognition, including multiple World Press Photo awards and honours from Pictures of the Year International, Travel Photographer of the Year, LensCulture and the Siena International Photo Awards. Yet Alain’s focus remains on finding stories that surprise him and creating concise visual narratives that transport viewers into lives and places they may otherwise never encounter.