Gilles Peress (born December 29, 1946) is a French photographer and a member of

Magnum Photos Magnum Photos is an international photographic cooperative owned by its photographer-members, with offices in New York City, Paris, London and Tokyo. It was founded in 1947 in Paris by photographers Robert Capa, David "Chim" Seymour, Maria Eisn ...

. Peress began working with photography in 1970, having previously studied political science and philosophy in Paris. One of Peress' first projects examined immigration in Europe, and he has since documented events in Northern Ireland, Lebanon, Palestine, Iran, the Balkans, Rwanda, the U.S., Afghanistan and Iraq. His ongoing project, Hate Thy Brother, a cycle of documentary narratives, looks at intolerance and the re-emergence of nationalism throughout the world and its consequences. Peress' books include ''Whatever You Say, Say Nothing''; ''Annals of the North''; ''Telex Iran''; ''The Silence: Rwanda''; ''Farewell to Bosnia''; ''The Graves: Srebrenica and Vukovar''; ''A Village Destroyed''; and ''Haines''. Peress' work has been exhibited and is collected by the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...

and

MoMA PS1 MoMA PS1 is a contemporary art institution located in Court Square in the Long Island City neighborhood in the borough of Queens, New York City. In addition to its exhibitions, the institution organizes the Sunday Sessions performance series, the ...

, all in New York; Art Institute of Chicago;

Corcoran Gallery of Art The Corcoran Gallery of Art was an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University. Overview The Corcoran School of the Arts & Design ...

, Washington, D.C;

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and wa ...

;

J. Paul Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. The Getty Center is located in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles and fea ...

in Los Angeles;

Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in the United States and, to ...

and

Minneapolis Institute of Arts The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the largest art museums in the United Stat ...

;

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

in London; Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Musée Picasso,

Parc de la Villette The Parc de la Villette is the third-largest park in Paris, in area, located at the northeastern edge of the city in the 19th arrondissement. The park houses one of the largest concentrations of cultural venues in Paris, including the Cité de ...

and Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris;

Museum Folkwang Museum Folkwang is a major collection of 19th- and 20th-century art in Essen, Germany. The museum was established in 1922 by merging the Essener Kunstmuseum, which was founded in 1906, and the private Folkwang Museum of the collector and patr ...

, Essen; and

Sprengel Museum Sprengel Museum is a museum of modern art in Hanover, Lower Saxony, holding one of the most significant collections of modern art in Germany. It is located in a building situated adjacent to the Masch Lake (german: Maschsee) approximately south ...

in Hannover. Awards and fellowships Peress has received include a Guggenheim Fellowship,

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

grants, Pollock-Krasner and

New York State Council on the Arts The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) is an arts council serving the U.S. state of New York. It was established in 1960 through a bill introduced in the New York State Legislature by New York State Senator MacNeil Mitchell (1905–1996 ...

fellowships, the W. Eugene Smith Grant for Humanistic Photography and the

International Center of Photography The International Center of Photography (ICP), at 79 Essex Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, consists of a museum for photography and visual culture and a school offering an array of educational courses and programming. ...

Infinity Award. Peress is Professor of Human Rights and Photography at

Bard College Bard College is a private liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and is within the Hudson River Historic District—a National Historic Landmark. Founded in 1860, ...

in New York and Senior Research Fellow at the Human Rights Center at

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...

. Peress joined

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 Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

with their three children.

Life and work

Peress was born December 29, 1946, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France and grew up in Paris with his mother, an

orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...

Christian from the Middle East, and his father, who was of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

and Georgian descent. Peress studied at the Institute d'Etudes Politiques in Paris from 1966 to 1968 and then at the University of

Vincennes Vincennes (, ) is a commune in the Val-de-Marne department in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. It is next to but does not include the Château de Vincennes and Bois de Vincennes, which are attache ...

until 1971. Peress began working as a photographer in 1970, embarking on an intimate portrayal of life in a French village, Decazeville, as it emerged from the ashes of a debilitating labor dispute. In 1973 he photographed Turkish immigrant workers in West Germany and documented the European policy to import cheap labor from the third world. He then joined

. Peress soon traveled to Northern Ireland to begin an ongoing 20-year project about the Irish civil rights struggle. One of his most famous pictures from this period captures a young man named Patrick Doherty moments before he was killed whilst crawling to safety in the forecourt of the Rossville flats during

Bloody Sunday Bloody Sunday may refer to: Historical events Canada * Bloody Sunday (1923), a day of police violence during a steelworkers' strike for union recognition in Sydney, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia * Bloody Sunday (1938), police violence aga ...

. ''Whatever You Say, Say Nothing'' a book that synthesizes his years of work in Northern Ireland, is the third part of his ongoing project called ''Hate Thy Brother'', a cycle of documentary stories that describe intolerance and the re-emergence of nationalism in the postwar years. ''Farewell to Bosnia'' was the first part of this cycle, and ''The Silence'', a book about the genocide in Rwanda, was the second. The Washington Post said ''Whatever You Say, Say Nothing'', which was awarded the Special Mention at the 2021 Recontres d'Arles book awards, "will surely go down as one of the most compelling photographic works of our time." In 1979 Peress traveled to Iran in the midst of the

Revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...

. His book, ''Telex Iran: In the Name of Revolution,'' is about the fragile relationship between American and Iranian cultures during the hostage crisis. Peress has also completed other major projects, including a photographic study of the lives of Turkish immigrant workers in Germany, and an examination of the contemporary legacy of the Latin American liberator

Simon Bolivar Simon may refer to: People * Simon (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name Simon * Simon (surname), including a list of people with the surname Simon * Eugène Simon, French naturalist and the genu ...

. Peress participated in the photography collective This Place, organized by photographer Frédéric Brenner. For his project, Peress focused on the village of Silwan, where there are frequent violent clashes between Palestinians and Jewish settlers, and used large format cameras to document his experience.

Peter Galassi Peter Johnston Galassi (born April 18, 1951) is an American writer, curator, and art historian working in the field of photography. His principal fields are photography and nineteenth-century French art. Education Galassi graduated from Phillip ...

, Chief Curator of the Department of Photography at the

in New York has said of Peress, "Over the past four decades, in one ambitious project after another, Gilles Peress has creatively transformed and reinvigorated photography's tradition of engaged reportage. Perhaps the most ambitious and sustained of all of those projects is his richly textured and deeply moving visual essay on two decades of bitter conflict that devastated Northern Ireland in the wake of Bloody Sunday in 1972. That extended essay has the gripping immediacy and epic sweep of a novel by Tolstoy."

Publications

*''Telex Persan''. With Gholam Hassan Saedi. France: Contrejour, 1984 **''Telex Iran: In the Name of Revolution'', USA: Aperture, 1984, **''Telex Iran: In the Name of Revolution'', Switzerland: Scalo, 1997, *''Eye for an Eye''. New York: Aperture, 1988. *''Farewell to Bosnia''. Switzerland: Scalo, USA:

Distributed Art Publishers D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, Inc. is an American company that distributes and publishes books on art, photography, design, and visual culture.Eric Stover Eric Stover is an American human rights researcher and advocate and faculty director of the Human Rights Center at the University of California at Berkeley. Career Stover officially began his human rights work as a researcher at Amnesty Intern ...

and Fred Abrahams. *''Haines, Photo Poche''. Actes Sud, 2004. Photographs and text by Peress. *''The Rockaways''. Concord Free Press, 2013. Photographs by Peress, edited with an introduction by Hamilton Fish. *''Whatever You Say, Say Nothing''. Steidl, 2021. *''Annals of the North''. Steidl, 2021. By Chris Klatell and Peress, with texts by Klatell.

Filmography

*''A Peruvian Equation'' (1992). Part of the series "The Magnum Eye", made for TV Tokyo. *''Street Musicians'' (1992). Filmed in NY for M. & Co. Agency, for Benetton. *''Farewell to Bosnia'' (1994). Video essay.

New media

*Bosnia: Uncertain Paths To Peace. Interactive multimedia photojournalism project for ''The New York Times'', on-Line, 1996. Concept and design Peress with Fred Ritchin.See https://www.nytimes.com/specials/bosnia/ *Farewell To Bosnia. with Picture Projects: Text and photographs by Gilles Peress, 1995.See *Crimes of War. Concept and Design Gilles Peress with html/editorial by Pixelpress.See *Human Rights Center at UC Berkeley. Concept and Design Peress with HTML by Pixelpress.See http://www.hrcberkeley.org/ *DNA and Human Rights. Concept and Design Peress with html/editorial by Pixelpress.See http://www.hrcberkeley.org/dna/ *A Village Destroyed. Concept and Design Peress.See http://www.hrcberkeley.org/avillagedestroyed/avdhome.html

Group projects

*''Crimes of War Project,'' co-founder and member of the Board of Directors, 1998 to 2008. *''Crimes of War: What the Public Should Know'', WW Norton, 1999, edited by Roy Gutman and David Rieff, concept and design concept by Peress. *''Here is New York: A Democracy of Photographs'' exhibition Co-founder, 2001, Concept by Peress. *''Access To Life, The Global Fund to fight AIDS'' with Magnum Photos. *''Postcards From America (Florida)'' with Magnum Photos.

Awards

*1977, Apeiron: Artist in Residence *1979,

*1981,

American Institute of Graphic Arts The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) is a professional organization for design. Its members practice all forms of communication design, including graphic design, typography, interaction design, user experience, branding and identity ...

Award *1981, Art Director's Club Award *1981,

Overseas Press Club The Overseas Press Club of America (OPC) was founded in 1939 in New York City by a group of foreign correspondents. The wire service reporter Carol Weld was a founding member, as was the war correspondent Peggy Hull. The club seeks to maintain ...

Award *1981, Prix du Premier Livre/Foundation Kodak Pathe *1981, Prix de la Critique Couleur *1983,

Imogen Cunningham Imogen Cunningham (; April 12, 1883 – June 23, 1976) was an American photographer known for her botanical photography, nudes, and industrial landscapes. Cunningham was a member of the California-based Group f/64, known for its dedication to t ...

Award *1983, Fondation Nationale pour la Photographie *1984, W. Eugene Smith Award for Humanistic Photography, W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund. A $15,000 grant "to continue his work documenting the life and the conflict that surrounds it in Northern Ireland". *1984, National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship *1986, Gahan Fellowship at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

*1989, Art Director's Club Award *1989, Ernst Haas Award *1990, Art Matters Grant *1992,

Fellowship *1992/93, Guggenheim Fellowship, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation *1993, La Fondation de France Fellowship *1995,

Infinity Award for Journalism *1995, Camera Works, Inc. Artist Grant *1995,

Dr. Erich Salomon Award The Dr. Erich Salomon Award (Dr.-Erich-Salomon-Preis), dedicated to Erich Salomon, is a lifetime achievement award for photojournalists given by the German Society for Photography (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie, DGPh). Winners *1971 ''St ...

from the

German Society for Photography German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

*1996, International Center of Photography Infinity Award for ''The Silence'' *1997,

Open Society Institute Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is a grantmaking network founded and chaired by business magnate George Soros. Open Society Foundations financially supports civil society groups around the world, with a st ...

's Individual Project Fellowship: Hate Thy Brother *1997, Art Director's Club Award for NY Times Web site design: Bosnia: Uncertain Paths to Peace *1999, Alfred Eisenstaedt Awards: Eyewitness Photo and Journalistic Impact *2000, Alfred Eisenstaedt Awards: Journalistic Impact – Photo Essay, "Exile and Return", The New Yorker *2000,

: 1999 Olivier Rebbot Award, "Exile and Return", The New Yorker *2000, Mosaique Programme Grant, "Difference/Indifference" Centre National de L'Audiovisuel, Luxembourg *2002, Brendan Gill Prize: Here is New York: a democracy of photographs exhibition *2002, Cornell Capa Award (International Center of Photography Infinity Awards): Here is New York: a democracy of photographs *2002,

, Individual Artists Project Grant *2002,

Pollock-Krasner Foundation The Pollock-Krasner Foundation was established in 1985 for the purpose of providing financial assistance to individual working artists of established ability. It was established at the bequest of Lee Krasner, who was an American abstract expressio ...

Grant

Collections

Presess' work is held in the following public collections:

Notes

References

General references

* Linfield, Susie. The Cruel Radiance: Photography and Political Violence. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2010.
Gilles Peress Biography, NYTimes.com

Interview with Gilles Peress

Magnum Photos Biography

External links

Peress' profile at Magnum Photos
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peress, Gilles 1946 births Living people Magnum photographers French photojournalists Photography in Iran Photography in Northern Ireland Bard College faculty