French photographer, member of Agence VU’ since 2021, based in Paris (France).

While doing press assignments, his documentary work takes him to places marked by the past and presenting him with symbols and history to address in a bid to reveal dramas now invisible: Chernobyl, Auschwitz, Nagasaki, and, more recently, the conflict in Ukraine. His photographs have been exhibited in many festivals and venues (e.g. in Paris, at the Jeu de Paume museum, the Maison Rouge and la grande Arche du Photojournalisme).  Guillaume Herbaut has received a number of distinctions, including three World Press awards, a Visa d’or, the Niépce Prize (2011) and the Bayeux-Calvados award for war correspondents (2016, in the Web-journalism category, for his logbook on Ukraine produced by Arte Info).

His book Ukraine, Terre désirée, published by Éditions Textuel in 2022, follows the origins of the conflict through twenty years of reporting.

“ Guillaume Herbaut has made photography embark on a process that is the reverse of current affairs coverage, extending on-the-spot reporting and adding scenes developed on a scale worthy of the narration of legends. To construct such an ambitious initiative, he has embraced the chronological and spatial dimension of both history in the making and History with a capital “H” where mankind grapples with human destiny. Subjects range from the glory of technology (nuclear power), instruments of power (weapons), and aspirations for democracy (revolution in Ukraine), to threats to health, base greed and the scourge of totalitarianism. Guillaume Herbaut has photographed the collapse of the modern-day Empire.

The power of pictures is a pivotal element in the shift from news to legend. Each key chapter written and comprising Guillaume Herbaut’s work stands as an exploration of the esthetic resources of photography and of the references built up over the two centuries that photography has existed; and it is an exploration of the possibility of using raw stories to imagine the world.