Gérald Assouline
Freelance photographer, film maker
and sociologist
www.geraldassouline.fr
ga@geraldassouline.fr
Member of the French Union of Professional Photographers (UPP, www.upp-auteurs.fr)
Founding member of the association Paroles par l’Image / Wording through Imaging (www.paimage.org)
Educational background
- 1983: PhD in development socio-economics at the University of Social Sciences, Grenoble (France).
- Self educated photographer.
Professional trajectory
- As a freelance photographer, dealing with participatory visual production
- - Since the end of 80’s, photography is an important component of educative and interactive projects aiming at developing dialogue and awareness within groups, mainly in the rural world (developing countries and Europe). .
- - Experiences of visual co-productions with Brazilian landless farmers for didactic purposes..
- - Conception and conduction of photo and video creative workshops aiming at giving specific groups will and capacity to develop their visual expression and to represent their relation to others, to their environment and finally their individual and collective identities. This activity is being carried out with groups such as rural women groups, urban marginalised youngsters, groups of socially and mentally disabled people, teenagers..
- - The Image Caravane (2009 – 2012), a touring photo studio, allows inhabitants and citizens to exhibit themselves to others in their daily life places, towns and villages, markets, in the diversity of their human identities. .
- - Teaching participatory photo and video theory and methodology : yearly workshop at Universita di Pisa (since 2009), Regione Toscana (2009). . Implementation of several participatory photo and video workshops since 2010, supported by Region Rhone Alpes in therapeutic and social farms which hosts people with social and mental difficulties.
- As a freelance subjective documentary photographer
- Simultaneously, long term personal photographic projects, with documentary content, are carried out
- - Ghosts in the Eastern Borderlands: A chaotic wandering from Baltic to Black sea, punctuated by the encounter of ghosts from past and present. It includes already finalised and shown works such as Karosta , the inhabited phantom town (2003), Searching for Ghosts at the Eastern European borderline (2006), Welcome to Sarajevo (2007), Waiting for …at the Baltic sea shore (2002 – 2005).
- - Esperar, from Lisbon to Istanbul, Marseille to Odessa (2009): a work on waiting for and hope feelings in harbours.
- - Night Zigzags (2009). My nights in Europe.
- Those projects are shown, through exhibitions, short films and catalogues.
Visual educational and creative workshops are organised for/with young photographers, amateurs or not, for development of their photographic intentions and projects. Portfolio review.
- As a social scientist
- - Since 1984 : Continuous research and development activity oriented towards the support to rural communities engaged in sustainable development processes. Today this mainly happens in Europe, within European multi-cultural networks and projects. Photo and video used as empowerment tools.- 1995
- - 2007: Professor at the Social Sciences University of Grenoble (France).
- - Since 2005 : Invited professor lecturing sociology at Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint Etienne (France).
10 years of selected exhibitions and events
2012
ï‚· 13:04 - Lucerne International Film Festival, Award of Merit, at Oct. 2012
ï‚· Invited artist by the Movie and video festival Invideo 2012, Milan, Nov. 2012
2011
ï‚· Collective exhibition of the collection of Pinacotheque of Geneva, Forum-Meyrin, Switzerland, Dec. 2011
ï‚· Esperar , from Lisbon to Istanbul, Marseille to Odessa, Le Square, Grenoble, France, Dec. 2011
ï‚· Night Zigzags – Award at Photofilm Festival, Fotoku, Tallinn, Estonia, Oct. 2011
ï‚· Night Zigzags - Selection and projection at Festival di fotografia di Colorno, juin 2011, Colorno, Italie
ï‚· Esperar, from Lisbon to Istanbul, Marseille to Odessa. Pinacotheque, Geneva, Switzerland, Sept. 2011
ï‚· Night Zigzags – Selection and projection at Festival di fotografia di Colorno, juin 2011, Colorno, Italie
ï‚· Night Zigzags – Selection and projection at Nuits Photographiques, juin 2011, Paris et juillet, Arles , France
2009
ï‚· Esperar, from Marseille to Istanbul. Galerie Camayeux , Marseille, Oct.-Dec 2009
ï‚· Night Zigzags - Les 11emes Instants Videos, Marseille, France
ï‚· Esperar, from Lisbon to Istanbul, Marseille to Odessa. Pouchkine Museum, Odessa, Ukraine , organised by the French Institute of Ukraine for the French Spring, April 2009.
2008
ï‚· Night Zigzags.- Projection at Angkor Photography Festival , Siem Reap, Cambodgia
ï‚· Night Zigzags – Projection at Zemos 98, Sevilla , Spainï‚· Lisbon story - A photographic haïku, shown by Galerie Camayeux Marseille (with other projects) at Maison de la Photographie, Toulon, Dec. 2008
2007
ï‚· Collective exhibition of the collection of Maison de la Photographie Robert Doisneau., Villejuif, oct. 2007.
2005
ï‚· Waiting for…on the Baltic seaside. Maison Robert Doisneau, Gentilly, Feb–May 2005.
2004
ï‚· The Night Diagonal: Riga. Septembre de la Photographie, Lyon, France, Sept.-Oct. 2004
2003
ï‚· Inactinique. Collective exhibition at Confluences, Paris, France, Sept.–Oct. 2003.
ï‚· Group Viewing, Collective exhibition at Odense Foto Triennale, Denmark, Oct. 2003.
ï‚· Borderlands. Projection in ‘première’ of Tango Baltico Gallery Atelier Josef Sudek, Prague, Czech Republic. March/April 2003.
2002
ï‚· Tango Baltico – Projection at Lielas Kristaps, National film festival, Riga, Latvia2002
ï‚· North-East Borderlands in Winter. Kinogalerja, Riga, Latvia, organised for the Month of Photography, by the French Embassy, Dec. 2002.
ï‚· North-East Borderlands in Winter. Gallery of the Union of Lithuanian Art Photographers, Vilnius, Lithuania, June 2002..
ï‚· Borderlands. Galleri Image, Aarhus, Denmark, March 2002.
Personal short films
- 13h04, DVD, DVD , 10’44, still movie, based on Ghosts in the East work, June 2012
- Night ZigZags, DVD, 7’ 32, still movie, based on Night photographic work. June 2008
- Tango Baltico:, DVD, 8’ 30, still movie, based on Baltic work. March 2003
Documentary participatory films
- Chez Claudette et Jean Christophe Coquart. DVD in 2 chapters 16’ and 20’. For Paroles par l’Image and ASTRA network, June 2012.
- Here it is quiet, DVD, 16’23, with/on disabled people living and working in the farm Le Habert (Savoie county). For Paroles par l’Image and ASTRA network, June 2011
- Words of life, DVD, 8’ 50, on/with unemployed people living and working at Solid-Action, a social inclusion farm. For Paroles par l’Image and SO FAR European project, April 2009
- Shared instants, DVD, 10’, on/with disabled adults living and working at Therapeutic Farm of Bellechambre (France), January 2009. For Paroles par l’Image and SO FAR European project.
- Little farmers stories, DVD, 9 mn, with still images done by disabled children, at the Therapeutitic Farm of Saint Jean de Vaulx (Isere county). For SO FAR European project, Aug. 2007.
- A guy gets out of home, DVD, 6 mn, with still images done by youngsters under legal process of the Youth Protection Department (Isere county), Grenoble, février 2006.
Publications
- Eastern Ghosts. To be published in 2013 by POSTCART (Roma): book project with texts and some 80 photos.
- Baltic Borderlands in Winter, 2002: Catalogue (50 pages) of the exhibition on Baltic Borderlands. QAP.
- Calendar 2006 (12 photos), Geneva Socialist Party (Switzerland),
- Le temps d’une pause, 2004: Calendar (13 photos). 3 Bornes Graphic, Paris.
- Documentary photographic work published in French and some European journals.
Portfolios on internet
www.lebleuduciel.net, www.revue.com, www.plotki.net, www.photographie.com, www.privatephotoreview.com, www.camayeuxmarseille.com , www.lfi-online.de, www.sophot.com, www.rhiz.eu, www.lightstalkers.org, etc
- Collections
- Photos have been purchased for public collections at Photo Museum Brandsfabrik of Odense(Denmark), Musée Pouchkine, Odessa (Ukraine), Artotheque of Ville de Grenoble (France),Pinacotheque of Geneva (Switzerland), Maison de la Photographie Robert Doisneau (Ville de Gentilly,France) and private collections in France and other European countries.
- Awards
- ï‚· Honorary Award of Merit for 13:04, at Lucerne International Film Festival, Oct. 2012
- ï‚· Award for Night Zigzags at Photofilm Festival, Fotoku, Tallinn, Estonia, Oct. 2011
- ï‚· European Culture Foundation (Amsterdam): Stepbeyond award, 2009.
- ï‚· European Culture Foundation (Amsterdam): Stepbeyond award, 2007