Michel Poivert

Student at the school of the Louvre Museum, Poivert holds a Ph.D. in Art History about pictorialism in France from La Sorbonne University (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University) in 1992, headed by José Voyelle. In 2002, he received his post-doctoral Ph.D. (Habilitation) on the relation between avant-gardes and photography in the 20th century. Since 2006, he has been a professor at La Sorbonne University.

From 2009 to 2012, he was the director of the school of Art History and Geography at La Sorbonne University. He was also the director of the Art History doctoral school from 2013 to 2018. Between 2010 and 2019, he was co-director of the research M.A. in History of Photography at the school of the Louvre Museum. He has directed and is directing several Ph.D. in the History of Photography.

He was a member of the editorial committees for the Revue de l’art and Etudes photographiques. He was also a member of the scientific committees for A Revista Visualidades é uma publicação semestral do Programa de Pós-graduação em Arte e Cultura Visual da Universidade Federal de Goiás, Rivista di studi di fotografia, Firenze university press, the journal Transbordeur Photographie Histoire Société, Université de Genève/Université de Lausanne, and the journal Photographica, edited by the Société française de photographie and the French Ministry of Culture.

Poivert serves in several extra-academic roles. He is a member of the administrative committees of the Jeu de Paume, the Conseil National des Arts Plastiques (2015–2018), the Centre photographique Ile-de-France and the Société française de photographie. He is part of scientific committees such as the Conseil Scientifique de la Médiathèque de l’architecture et du Patrimoine, the French Ministry of Culture, the Jacques-Henri Lartigue Foundation, the Gilles Caron Foundation and the Scientific Board of Lieven Gevaert Center for Photography. Furthermore, he is an administrator for the Neuflize-OBC Corporate Foundation for the arts, and a member of the acquisition committee of Neuflize-OBC.

In 1992, Poivert helped the Société française de photographie (SFP) recover from near-bankruptcy and became its president in 1995. In 2004, he organized the exhibition "L'Utopie photographique", clearly testifying to the association's new lease of life on the occasion of its 150th anniversary. He has been editor of SFP's magazine, Etudes photographiques, and together with Clément Chéroux, he has participated in building a collection of biographies of contemporary photographers, also published by the SFP. In addition to his teaching and research assignments, he has been effective in promoting the younger generation of French photographers.