François Rousseau is a professional French painter and photographer born in 1967. He started in painting for almost ten years, before turning to photography in 1995. The link started when he discovered Patrick Grainville's novel, L'Atelier du Peintre (The Painter’s Studio) when it came out in 1988 about the relationship of the painter to his models, of different backgrounds, who posed in the studio. It was as if the models had waited to be born and even chosen by the master. This resulted in Rousseau's work Atelier. Mikael Karlsson composed Life Class, a 25-minute musical work accompanying Atelier that became a vital part of the project. Photos from Atelier became a part of an exhibition at the Maison européenne de la photographie in Paris until April 2009.