The Wrong Side
Jérôme Sessini builds a passion for photography, discovering American documentary photography through books shown by a friend, a photographer. He initiates his own practice, shooting people, landscapes and daily lives of those around his native Eastern France (with Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander, Mark Cohen and Eugene Richards in mind).In 1998, although nothing predicted he would turn to journalism, Sessini arrives in Paris. Gamma photo agency gives him the opportunity to cover the ongoing conflict in Kosovo.Sessini has since then covered most of the international current events: Palestine, Iraq (from 2003 to 2008), Aristide’s fall in Haiti (2004), the conquest of Mogadishu by the Islamic militias and the war in Lebanon (2006).Sessini’s work is immediately internationally acknowledged. It is published by prestigious newspapers and magazines among which, Newsweek, Stern, Paris-Match as well as Le Monde and the Wall Street Journal.His photography also leads to single exhibitions at the Visa Photo Festival in Perpignan, at the Rencontres d’Arles, the Bibliothèque nationale François-Mitterrand, as well as with the French Ministry of Culture.Jerome Sessini is now a nominee at Magnum Photos.(July 2012)