Philippine Schaefer was born in 1970 in Westphalia, Germany and has lived and worked in Paris since 1991. She graduated from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts ENSBA, Paris in 1997.

She studied with Christian Boltanski, Marina Abramovic, Mona Hatoum, Graciela Iturbide and Georges Jeanclos. Gradually sculpture gave way to performance, the body became her field of exploration and photography imposed itself as a witness. In 1998 she discovered the art of tattooing which she has been practicing professionally ever since, in a resolutely singular approach. 

However, photography remains the privileged expression of her body introspections. Since 2017 Philippine elaborates her own photographic prints in her laboratory, or with the printer Diamantino Quintas. Her photographic research comes within the body, her own body making matter. The images are born in the darkroom, intimate and universal genealogies.