The name Eden Olympia was chosen in reference to the book by JG Ballard Supercannes and to the publishing house Olympia Press by Maurice Girodias. The name intented to be that of a publishing house, in the continuity of tofu-magazine, but lack of means this project did not succeed. Nevertheless, the name has been kept for this site which presents the photographic work of Benoit Dupuis.
He learned the basics of photography at the National School of Fine Arts in Bourges in 1976. There he became friend with Philippe Batrosse with who he share the same interest for art. They both came to the conclusion that we were wasting their time in school and moved to Paris in 1977, the year of the emergence of punk. They were part of the Parisian punk scene. Some of the photos from this period are visible under the title Early works.
In 1979, he collected enough money to buy a plane ticket to fly to San Francisco where he spent 6 months. There was nothing left of Haight Ashbury, but a new musical and artistic scene had developed. This was the place to be! He met the artist/musician JC Garrett, who became later a contributor to Tofu-magazine. he traveled to Mexico and on his way back to France he stopped in New York and by coincidence met Rudy Stern, the owner of the gallery Let There Be Neon on East Broadway. He was appointed to be the designer for the Parisian branch of the gallery that was opening in Paris Les Halles. He stopped doing photography around that time. The images from the period 1976-1984 are presented in the Pre-digital series.
After studying painting in Brussels and Venice, he worked in Paris as a free-lance artist and produced large murals and architectural trompe-l'oeil. He was commissioned for the first time in Asia in 1994 and decided it was definitely a place worth to live.
He settled in Hong Kong in 1997 and created the company Dazibao with graphic designer Daniel Gé. They founded together the cross cultural magazine tofu-magazine. Archives of the magazine are visible in the Publishing section of the site.
From that time he spend his time working on various projects between France and Asia and traveled in South East Asia. He particuliary appreciated Cambodia where he made several trips. 2 series are presented on the site in the Kampuchea section. He returned to photography in 2008. It coincides to the time he moved to Japan. The images produced since are presented on this site under the title Japon 2008-2018.
