Born Cédric Houin in 1978 in Paris, a single child, with a free spirit traveler pianist grandmother named “Moon”, an intellectual, loving mother, and a father who worked for 40 years in Africa, South America, and the Pacific, Cédric grew up traveling a world of contrasts.
Embedded in many worlds, cultures, and traditions, Varial is naturally driven and attracted to extreme journeys, remote places, tribes, and threatened cultures, obsessed by untold realities, rare captured moments, simple but singular realities, and striving for the sublime. Varial’s personal photography and film works humbly document transitions, major transitions: from "uncontacted tribes" to "contacted tribes" in Ecuador, from surviving to disappearing in Afghanistan and Borneo, from illiteracy to literacy in rural India.
Varial sees the world with great compassion and intimacy. His work has a universal quality and blends both documentary and portraiture at the same time. Accomplished and clear in his artistic vision, his images are stunning and expressive, as they portray dignity and beauty as well as hardship within the culture he has documented _ Lens Culture
CLIENTS & PUBLICATIONS
THE NATURE CONSERVANCY NATURE.ORG / NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC / NATIONAL GEOGRAHIC TRAVELER / SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE / NEW YORK TIMES / NEXT GEN CLIMATE / BAREFOOT COLLEGE / GEO MAGAZINE / CBC / RADIO CANADA / CNN / KARUNA SHECHEN / HUTAN PROJECT
Film
2015 - WAKHAN - ETONNANTS VOYAGEURS Film Fest
Selection and listed as Best of Show
2014 -WAKHAN - RENDEZ-VOUS DU CINÉMA QUÉBÉCOIS
Best 1st or 2nd documentary
Photography
2012 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELER
1st Place Winner, World
2012 - PDN ANNUAL - Photo District News - USA
2011 - EXPOSURE - Artist Wanted - USA
2011 - APPLIED ARTS - Canada
2010 LUX - Québec
2010 APPLIED ARTS - 3 Prizes - Canada
2009 LUX - 1 Grand Prize + 4 Prizes - Quebec
2008 LUX - 1 Prize - Québec
Conceptual - Illustration
2010 PDN PIX - Photo District News - USA
2010 LUX - Québec
2010 APPLIED ARTS - 4 Prizes - Canada
2009 CREA - Annual Québec Advertising
2005 FELIX - Best CD sleeve - Quebec Music Awards
2003-04-05 - ONETOP - 7 Prizes + Best of Show 2004 - Quebec
Interactive
2009 - CANNES LIONS - shortlist - World
2009 - APPLIED ARTS INTERACTIVE - Canada
2008 - BOOMERANG - Grand Prize + 1 Prize b2c - Quebec
2008 - FWA - site of the day
2008 WEBBIES - nominee - World
OTROMUNDO MEXICO : 2021-2023
DOÑA LUZ BOOK : Geneva 2016 - London 2016 / in support of/with the Barefoot College
WAKHAN : April - August 2014,
Arsenal Contemporary Art, Toronto
WAKHAN : October 2013 - March 2014,
Arsenal Contemporary Art, Montreal
WAKHAN : January 2013, United Nations, New York
WAKHAN : May 2012, Milk Gallery, New York
TRACES OF TIME : April 2012, ,
Impossible Project, New York
Buddha Bar Gallery Paris November 2012,
eXcentris Gallery, Montreal April 2010,
eXcentris Gallery, Montreal October 2009,
