Jerome Sessini is based in Paris, France. He built up a passion for photography, discovering American documentary photography through books shown to him by a friend and photographer. He initiated his own practice, shooting landscapes, people and the daily lives of those around his native Eastern France; with Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander, Mark Cohen and Eugene Richards in mind.
In 1998, although nothing predicted he would turn to journalism, Sessini arrived in Paris, and Gamma photo agency gave him the opportunity to cover the ongoing conflict in Kosovo.
Sessini has since covered many international current affairs such as conflict in Palestine and Iraq from 2003-2008, Aristide’s fall from power in Haiti in 2004, the conquest of Mogadishu by the Islamic militias, as well as the war in Lebanon in 2006.
Sessini’s work was immediately acknowledged internationally and published by prestigious newspapers and magazines such as Newsweek, Stern, Paris Match, Le Monde and the Wall Street Journal.
His photography also led to solo exhibitions at the Visa Pour l’Image Photo Festival in Perpignan, at the Rencontres d’Arles, the Bibliotheque nationale François-Mitterrand, as well as with the French Ministry of Culture.
In 2008, Jerome Sessini started the Mexican project, “So far from God, too close to America,” a dive into the drug cartels’ war in Mexico. This ongoing project has already been awarded twice with the F-Award and a Getty Images Grant for Editorial Photography.
As a result of this direct confrontation with violence, Sessini has recognized something at the heart of his work, stating “Ordinary people are always those suffering losses, whether it is in Iraq, Mexico or France.”
Struck by a sense of despair from what he had seen, Sessini became very aware of the ‘rightness’ of his photographic work. He rejects idealism and otherworldliness, which do not take in account the real essence of reality.
