Born in India in 1986, I grew up in Normandy, in the port city of Honfleur. After studying anthropology, I worked for a while as a fisherman. Then I packed a few clothes in a bag and flew to Australia.
Two years – and thousands of kilometers across Asia – later, I came back with the desire to join the United Nations. I went back to school in Paris and got a double master’s degree in International Relations at the Institut des Relations Internationales et Stratégiques (IRIS) and at the University of Paris 8.
I was quickly hired by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Mauritania. Specialized in migrant reintegration missions, I am regularly sent to the field throughout Africa. It is in contact with local populations that I develop my passion for photography. The image allows me to tell these extraordinary encounters and my experience of alterity.
Self-taught, I continue to learn photography during my missions. It is through daily practice that I progressively gain the trust of managers at IOM. In 2018, I was entrusted with my first official work as a documentary photographer: covering artisanal gold mining in eastern Burkina Faso. This first photographic series gave rise to a first exhibition in Dakar: “Pour tout l’or du monde” (For all the gold in the world), in the former courthouse converted into an art center. My work tells the story of the migrants who came to settle in the region to try their luck with the gold miners.
I launched my career as a freelance photographer. I left for the Caucasus and then Iraqi Kurdistan, where I met Syrian refugees from the Bardarash refugee camp who had just fled their country following the withdrawal of the United States from Syria in late 2019.
From the Iraqi camps, I traveled to Djibouti, at the tip of the Horn of Africa. For three years, IOM Djibouti mandates me to document the situation of Ethiopian migrants crossing the country to Yemen and then to Saudi Arabia. The journey is done on foot in extreme conditions. I document IOM’s humanitarian activities along the migration corridor.
My work with IOM also took me to Ethiopia and Kenya, where I photographed the effects of climate change on local populations. I returned to Iraq at the end of 2022 to document the return of IDPs to their home areas, thanks to the support of IOM. This mission allows me to meet the Yezidis, a population strongly impacted by the conflict with the Islamic State Organization, in the still destroyed areas around the town of Sinjar.
At the beginning of 2022, I joined the Hans Lucas photographic agency.
Today, I photograph, but I also write articles on the subjects I cover. I regularly document my assignments not only in photos, but also in audio and video.
My documentary work focuses on the one hand on humanitarian fields, with a particular interest in contemporary social issues, such as migration and global warming. I work in this case in the network of United Nations agencies. On the other hand, I practice wildlife and travel photography. I then travel as a freelancer, and meet traditional societies, whose portraits I make with an anthropological eye.
I develop these last months new fields. From my home in Brittany I make portraits. I hope to show you more soon. Contact me so that we can exchange more. See you soon.
