Quote: "Taking pictures is like fishing or writing. It's getting out of the unknown that which resists and refuses to come to light."

Jean Gaumy joined Magnum Photos in 1977 and became a full Member in 1986.

French, b. 1948

Raised in the southwest of France, Jean Gaumy began working as a writer and photographer for a local newspaper in Rouen while studying literature at university from 1969 to 1972. In 1973 he joined the Gamma photo agency and then, four years later, Magnum Photos.

In 1975 he was given permission to undertake an in-depth study of a French hospital, documenting the daily lives of doctors and patients. The result was a stark statement about the health care system. The following year he was the first photojournalist to be allowed inside a French prison; his work there resulted in a book in 1983: Les Incarcérés (The Imprisoned).

Gaumy completed numerous assignments in Europe, Africa, Central America and the Middle East. Between 1986 and 1994 he frequently visited Iran. His photograph of Iranian women during the Iran-Iraq War practicing firing their weapons earned him international recognition.

Gaumy has often returned to his maritime roots. He sailed on fishing boats many times between 1984 and 1998. In 2001 he published Le Livre des Tempêtes à Bord de l'Abeille Flandre (The Book of Storms on Board the 'Abeille Flandre'). In the same year Pleine Mer (published in English as Men at Sea) appeared; this photographic overview of fourteen years spent studying the daily life of ships' crews, accompanied by excerpts from Gaumy's private diary, won the 2001 Nadar Award for the book of the year.

Since the 1980s Gaumy has written and directed several acclaimed, prize-winning documentary films. Most recently he spent four months under the sea in a nuclear submarine on a secret defense mission around the Arctic Ocean, making the first film of its kind; the project also resulted in a book, Sous-Marin (2006).

Awards

2001 Prix Nadar, France
1984 Grand Prix du Jury (for La Boucane), Belfort Film Festival, France
Prix du premier film au Festival du Film Ethnologique, Paris, France

Exhibitions

2003 Men at Sea – Ben Rubi Gallery, New York, USA; South Street Seaport
Museum, New York, USA
2002/06 Pleine Mer / Mar Alto - Caixa Galicia, La Coru?a, Spain; Caixa Galicia, Vigo,
Spain; Melville Gallery, South Street Seaport Museum, New York, USA;
Centro Portugues de Fotografia, Porto, Portugal; Musée de la Marine,
Palais de Chaillot, Paris, France; Scheepvaartmuseum, Amsterdam, the
Netherlands; Chroniques Nomades, Honfleur, France;
Centre Atlantique de la Photographie, Brest, France
1994 Portraits en Altitude - Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
1993/94 Le Pont de Normandie – Galeries FNAC, Rouen, Caen, Paris, France
1990 Men’s Lives: The Surfmen and Baymen of the Southfork - Library of Congress,
Washington D.C., USA
1983 Les Incarcérés - Galerie Magnum, Paris, France
1980 Fondation Nationale des Arts Plastiques et Graphiques de Paris, France
1973 Travailleurs de la Mer - Maison de la Culture du Havre, France

Collections

National Maritime Museum of Paris, France
Centre Beaubourg, Paris, France
Public Collection, the National Library, France
National Photography Foundation, Lyon, France
Library of Congress, Washington D.C., U.S.A.

Books

2001/02 Pleine Mer, La Martinière, France; (Men at Sea), Harry N. Abrams, USA;
(Mare Aperto), Contrasto, Italy; (Auf hoher See), Knesebeck, Germany
2001 Le Livre des Tempêtes à bord de l’Abeille Flandre, Seuil, France
1995 Le Pont de Normandie, Le Cherche-Midi, France
1983 Les Incarcérés, L’Etoile/Cahiers du Cinéma, France
1976 L’H?pital, Contrejour, France

Films

2006 Sous-Marin (video, color, 5x25')
1994 Marcel, Prêtre (16mm, color, 42')
1987 Jean-Jacques (16mm, color, 52')
1984 La Boucane (16mm, color, 35')