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jean-philippe gauvrit
http://socialdocumentary.net
/photographer/gauvrit
Email
jphgauvrit@yahoo.fr
Phone
+8618621380200
Country
China

Biography

I was born in 1963 in France. Born to photography 20 years later, after discovering Alexander Rodtchenko’s low angle shots. Photography becomes a regular activity after a first series of jazz concerts, jazz music remains ever since a constant source of inspiration, inseparable from picture taking.

 In the early 90ies, Lee Friedlander, met during a workshop at Arles Photo Festival encourages me to keep on working on my “strange pictures”, while French photographer Arnaud Claass teaches me about visual rigor and introduces me to the work of Walker Evans, another aesthetical reference for my photography.

As of 1993 I begin a series on the Paris St-Germain Football club’s fans, the anonymous passerby’s in big cities such as Paris and New York, and a series of landscapes in urban no-man’s lands. From this period onwards I started photographing street scenes, in particular in Prague, in Hungary and then in Asia (Tokyo, Singapore, Vietnam, Hong-Kong).

From 2002 to 2007, a professional expatriation in China allows me the opportunity to begin a documentary work, first in black and white, then in color, about Shanghai’s popular and industrial neighborhoods bound for demolition. This project was exhibited in China and I published a book, Shanghai in JPG, with the support of Gallery Owner and Curator Jean Loh.

In 2009 I started two documentary projects: One around the outskirts of Paris called "in their eyes...emptiness". The second one in China, in second-tier cities (Shenyang, Zhengzhou, Wuhan), that I am planning to close in 2012.

I am currently living in Shanghai, where I am developing a new project 'Minhang - District", in parallel to street shooting.