Eric Baudelaire has never followed a prearranged path. His life has been one lucky coincidence after another, all leading him to photography. But is it all down to luck? Not really, since he grew up surrounded by photography, with a father and an uncle who were both professional photographers.

After passing his baccalaureate in economics, Eric pursued studies in the United States, where he lived for 10 years. He read political science at Brown University, specializing in Middle Eastern conflicts, and then headed to New York, where he worked in the Internet business before dropping everything in 2000 for photography. He works in the print press (Les Inrockuptibles and Libération) and on book projects (with the Jean-Michel Place publishing house).

He returned to Paris in 2002 to focus specifically on documentary photography. He wanted to give himself time to think and to immerse himself in people and places in order to understand their hidden worlds. He became absorbed by the concept of borders, which he considers invisible yet ever-changing lines that lay the foundations for the history of mankind. For him, photography is a way to put faces and landscapes in the historical picture, helping him to understand the destiny and development of the human race.

Achievements since winning the grant
In 2005, Eric won the HSBC Foundation Photography Prize. In September 2005, he published Etats Imaginés (Actes Sud), followed by exhibitions at the 13 Sévigné-Baudoin Lebon gallery in Paris, the Château d’Eau gallery in Toulouse and the Arsenal in Metz. At the same time, he was pursuing his award-winning 2003 project. After several photo-taking trips, he still plans to make “one or two more visits” to Turkey and is keeping a keen eye on Turkey’s European Union entry negotiations.

 In 2006, Eric participated in the 18th Visa pour l’Image, an international photojournalism festival that took place in Perpignan in September, where he exhibited “The Dreadful Details” (a commission from the Centre National des Arts Plastiques [the National Plastic Arts Centre] of the Culture and Communications Ministry). Through his photos, Eric Beaudelaire asks the question: Is it still possible to describe events, shake people up and raise awareness through exhibits of contemporary conflicts?