After studies in Economic Sciences at the University of Law, Economics and Social Sciences of Paris (Paris II), France, Alain Soldeville embarked on a two-year trip to Asia and Australia that kick-started his photography career. In the early 1980s, he created Bugis Street, a recently rediscovered and acclaimed series on the now-demolished, world-famous Singapore home of transgender sex workers, sailors, hawkers and street merchants.

Returning to Paris, Alain became a photojournalist whose work has appeared in Stern, The New York Times, Newsweek, Géo, National Geographic France, Men’s Vogue, Le Figaro Magazine, Marie Claire and other French and international publications. He joined Ana Agency in 1987 and became a member of Rapho Agency in 1990. From 2011 to 2017 he joigned the photographers collective Picturetank.

From 1999, he turned to personnal photography relating to identity and memory, the body’s representation and the relationship between texts and images. The resulting series, The Eloquent Body, has been shown in numerous exhibitions and in four museums in Europe, while Talking Portraits, Busy People, Bangkok, The Best of Tales and Balzac have been shown at the Month of Photography Bangkok and in solo and group exhibitions alongside the works of Robert Mapplethorpe, Orlan and more.

Since 2003, Alain has worked extensively in Thailand on different documentary series about globalisation and its effects. He received the support of the French Embassy and the Alliance Française Bangkok with his exhibitions and three residencies. He has given multiple public talks, workshops and sharing sessions in Europe and Asia.