Christian Boltanski is a French photographer, sculptor and installation artist (although he refers to himself as a "painter", with regard to his concerns in all media).

He was born in Paris in 1944 and spent the beginning years of his life in hiding from the Nazis.

He is married to the artist Annette Messager , with whom he sometimes collaborates.

Of Jewish descent, Christian Boltanksi's artistic work is haunted by the problems of memory and loss and he often seeks to memorialize the anonymous and those who have disappeared.