As it completes its current expansion, the European Union will soon have a new border to the east. How do its new neighbours feel about the prospect of a new structure to Europe? What impact should they expect it to have on their everyday lives?
It is Frédéric Sautereau's firm intention to provide answers to these questions.  A member of the collective L'OEil Public, and boosted by this prestigious prize and numerous pieces of collaborative work that have attracted a great deal of interest (in Libération, Le Monde, La Croix, L'Express and L'Humanité), the photographer sees his work as "an opportunity, real freedom". It is a taste for freedom that certainly plays a part in Des murs et des vies (Walls and Lives), a series of photo-reportages produced between 1997 and 2000 in divided cities such as Belfast, Mostar, Jerusalem and Mitrovica, and it surely counted for something in the choice of his next subject, the separation between Israel and the West Bank.
With Lisières d'Europe (At the edge of Europe), produced in conjunction with a writer colleague, Frédéric Sautereau once again finds himself standing at the foot of the wall. The photographer has already made a number of journeys, and the next stages of the project will take him to Poland and Byelorussia, as well as Finland.   Although the support of the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation has undoubtedly been essential in allowing him to bring his project to fruition ("The press doesn't finance this kind of work"), it has also given him a precious advantage, which he describes in his own words: "Being vividly remembered by people".

Achievements since winning the grant

His reportage N40 42’ 42’’ W74 00’ 45’’, on the Americans around Ground Zero in 2001, was published in 2003. In 2004, Frédéric Sautereau took part in Regards sur 10 nouvelles capitales européennes (Views of ten new European capitals) on the Champs-Elysées.