Quote:"I don't care so much anymore about 'good photography'; I am gathering evidence for history".
Gilles Peress joined Magnum Photos in 1970 and is a Magnum Contributor.


Gilles Peress
French, b. 1946

Gilles Peress was born in France and studied at the Institut d'études Politiques and at the Université de Vincennes. Peress started using photography to create museum installations and books in 1971. His books include Haines (2004); A Village Destroyed (2002); The Graves: Srebrenica and Vukovar (1998); The Silence: Rwanda (1995); Farewell to Bosnia (1994); and Telex Iran (1984, reprinted 1997).

His work has been exhibited and is collected by the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the International Center of Photography and PS1, all in New York; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; the George Eastman House in Rochester; the Walker Art Center and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts; the V&A in London; the Musée d'Art Moderne, Parc de la Villette and Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris; the Museum Folkwang, Essen; the Sprengel Museum, Hanover; and the Nederlands Foto Instituut, among others.

Among the awards and fellowships Peress has received are: Guggenheim, National Endowment for the Arts (1992, 1984, 1979), Pollock-Krasner (2002) and New York State Council of the Arts (2002) fellowships, the W. Eugene Smith Grant for Humanistic Photography, the Gahan Fellowship at Harvard University, the International Center of Photography Infinity Award (2002, 1996, 1994), the Erich Salomon Prize, and the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award (2000, 1999, 1998).

Portfolios of his work have appeared on numerous occasions in the New York Times Magazine, the Sunday Times Magazine, Du magazine, Life, Stern, Geo, Paris-Match, Parkett, Aperture, Doubletake, the New Yorker and the Paris Review.

Peress joined Magnum Photos in 1971 and served three times as vice-president and twice as president of the co-operative. He and his wife, Alison Cornyn, live in Brooklyn with their three children.

Education
1966/68 Institut d'Etudes Politiques
1968/71 Université de Vincennes

Awards
1996 International Center of Photography Infinity Award
1995 Erich Solomon Prize
1995 Camera Works
1994 International Center of Photography Infinity Award
1993 La Fondation de France Fellowship
1992/93 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship
1992 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
1990 Art Matters Grant
1989 Ernst Haas Award
1989 Art Director's Club Award
1986 Gahan Fellowship at Harvard University
1984 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
1984 W. Eugene Smith Award for Humanistic Photography
1983 Fondation Nationale pour la Photographie
1983 Imogen Cunningham Award
1981 Prix de la Critique Couleur
1981 Prix du Premier Livre/Foundation Kodak Pathe
1981 Overseas Press Club Award
1981 Art Director's Club Award
1981 American Institute of Graphic Arts Award
1979 National Endowment for the Arts
1977 Apeiron: Artist in Residence

Exhibitions
1996 Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York, USA
1995 Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA; Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
1995 Farewell to Bosnia - Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills,
Michigan, USA
1994 Farewell to Bosnia - Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington,
D.C., USA; Photomuseum, Winterthur, Switzerland; Museum of
Contemporary Photography, Chicago, USA; PS1, New York City,
USA; Rhode Island College Art Center, USA; New Langton Arts,
San Francisco, California, USA; Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Nimes, France;
The Dutch Institute of Photography, Rotterdam, Netherlands; La Primavera
Barcelona (Fundacio La Caixa), Spain
1993 Lillehammer Art Museum, Lillehammer, Norway
1992 David Winton Bell Gallery, Brown University, Providence, USA
1990 Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, USA; Alternative Museum, New York City,
USA; International Center for Photography, New York City, USA;
Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Canada
1989 Alternative Museum, New York City, USA; International Center for Photography,
New York City, USA; International Museum of Photography/Eastman House,
Rochester, USA; University of South Florida, Tampa, USA; Canon Image Center,
Amsterdam, Netherlands; Fotograficentrum, Stockholm, Sweden;
Side Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK; Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego,
USA; Arbetets Museum, Norrkoping, Sweden
1988 Hippolyte Gallery, Helsinki and Ranta Gallery, Oulu, Finland; Burden Gallery,
New York City, USA
1987 The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, USA
1986 Cité de la Villette, Paris, France; Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard
University, Cambridge, USA; The Catskill Center for Photography, Woodstock, NY,
USA; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA
1985 Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., USA; Musée d'Art, Fribourg, Switzerland;
Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie, Arles, France; Ledel Gallery,
New York City, USA
1984 Institute for Art and Urban Resources, New York City, USA; Film in the Cities,
St. Paul, Minnesota, USA; Focus Gallery, San Francisco, California, USA; City
Gallery, New York City, USA; Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France;
Institute for Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Galerie Magnum,
Paris, France
1983 Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, Oregon, USA
1982 Side Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK; Centre Kodak, Paris, France
1981 Palais du Luxembourg, Paris, France; International Center for Photography,
New York City, USA
1980 Institute for Art and Urban Resources, New York City, USA
1980 Arts Council of Great Britain, London, UK

Collections

The Art Institute of Chicago, USA
Arts Council of Great Britain, London, UK
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France
First Bank of Minnesota, USA
Fogg Museum, Cambridge, USA
Fondation Leitz, Rueil-Malmaison, France
Fondation Nationale pour la Photographie, Paris, France
International Museum of Photography, Rochester, USA
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
The Minnaeapolis Institute of Art, USA
Galerie du Chateau d'Eau, Toulouse, France
Musee d'Art Moderne de la ville de Paris, France
The Museum of the Moving Image, New York, France
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
The New York Historical Society, New York, USA

Books
1998 The Graves: Srebrenica and Vukovar, (with Eric Stover), Scalo,
Switzerland/USA/Germany
1996 Power in the Blood: Photographs of the North of Ireland, Jonathan Cape/Scalo, UK
1995 The Silence. Rwanda, Scalo, Switzerland/USA/Germany
1994 Farewell to Bosnia, Scalo, Switzerland/Distributed Art Publications, USA
1988 Eye for an Eye, Aperture, USA
1984 Telex Persan, Contrejour, France; (Telex Iran, with Gholam Hassan Saedi),
Aperture, USA (re-published in 1997, Scalo, Switzerland)

Films

1994 Farewell to Bosnia (video essay)
1992 A Peruvian Equation (part of the series “The Magnum Eye”, made for TV Tokyo)
1992 Street Musicians ( filmed in NY for M. & Co. Agency, for Benetton)