Research: Mathieu Asselin's Monsanto Project
Monsanto: A Photographic Investigation -Mathieu Asselin
Mathiew Asselin is a French-Venezuelan photographer artist specializing in documentary photography. His work mainly consists out of longterm investigative documentary projects, such as his latest book ‘Monsanto: A Photographic Investigation’, which received international acclaim, winning the Kassel FotoBook Festival Dummy Award in 2016, the Aperture Foundation First Book Award in 2017 and has been shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize in 2018.
In his work, he brings attention to the implications that Monsanto has created. By presenting its past and the present, he aims to demonstrate what Monsanto's near future will look like.
He does not claim to be an activist but he says "I need to ground my story in research". But, aware of the responsibility he assumed when telling this story, Asselin says he strived to stick to facts – while also being critical.
“As a photographer, I am at the service of the story, and not the other way round,” says Asselin. “The story is the centre of this project, and not a mere complement. I lean on available tools: text, document, image appropriation, postal cards, objects… to make the story reach the public, its ultimate target. I have relied on existing research, but the challenge, from a photographer’s point of view, was to put all the Monsanto-related stories together and reveal how they are all connected.” -Mathieu Asselin
Asselin is a big inspiration for my project because his work demonstrates how we need to pay attention to our surroundings and take care of our environment. Although his photography involves pasts on a larger scale, a lot of it includes victims farmers that are affected by Monsanto policies, destructive places, and weathered textures, which I aim to capture in my project to portray the disconnect between producers and consumers. In addition, each section in the photobook has an introductory essay, and rich captions that provide the necessary context. This combination of words and pictures would be the important focus in my project.
References
http://mathieuasselin.com/monsanto/
http://www.bjp-online.com/2017/11/monsanto-mathieu-asselin/
Mathiew Asselin is a French-Venezuelan photographer artist specializing in documentary photography. His work mainly consists out of longterm investigative documentary projects, such as his latest book ‘Monsanto: A Photographic Investigation’, which received international acclaim, winning the Kassel FotoBook Festival Dummy Award in 2016, the Aperture Foundation First Book Award in 2017 and has been shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize in 2018.
In his work, he brings attention to the implications that Monsanto has created. By presenting its past and the present, he aims to demonstrate what Monsanto's near future will look like.
He does not claim to be an activist but he says "I need to ground my story in research". But, aware of the responsibility he assumed when telling this story, Asselin says he strived to stick to facts – while also being critical.
“As a photographer, I am at the service of the story, and not the other way round,” says Asselin. “The story is the centre of this project, and not a mere complement. I lean on available tools: text, document, image appropriation, postal cards, objects… to make the story reach the public, its ultimate target. I have relied on existing research, but the challenge, from a photographer’s point of view, was to put all the Monsanto-related stories together and reveal how they are all connected.” -Mathieu Asselin
Asselin is a big inspiration for my project because his work demonstrates how we need to pay attention to our surroundings and take care of our environment. Although his photography involves pasts on a larger scale, a lot of it includes victims farmers that are affected by Monsanto policies, destructive places, and weathered textures, which I aim to capture in my project to portray the disconnect between producers and consumers. In addition, each section in the photobook has an introductory essay, and rich captions that provide the necessary context. This combination of words and pictures would be the important focus in my project.
References
http://mathieuasselin.com/monsanto/
http://www.bjp-online.com/2017/11/monsanto-mathieu-asselin/
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