Bruno
Boudjelal

Bruno Boudjelal

biography


French-Algerian photographer, member of AgenceVU’, he lives and works between Paris and Africa.

Born in Montreuil in 1961, Bruno Boudjelal practices photography as a way of life that constantly questioned his own identity and confronts us to ours.

In 1993, he left France to follow the footsteps of his paternal origins in Algeria. This discovery was the starting point of 10 years of very personal exploration, which lead him between travel diary and testimony, to go from black and white to colors, and to accept the subjectivity of his point of view. He then extended the borders of his travel and adventure bigger, to other territories – remote or not – and testified of pan Africanism.

Assuming the identity question as singular and fitting in with a collective history, his photographic work as part of engaged testimony, from “narrative in images that attempts to approach a complex reality. But the more complex the reality is, the more interesting is the diffraction of point of view”.

Regularly published in the press, winner of institutional grants et prestigious prizes – including the Nadar prize in 2015 for his book Algérie, clos comme on ferme un livre? (Algeria, closed as a book is closed?) – Bruno Boudjelal has published six monongraphs. His works have been included to public French collections, and are the subject of numerous exhibitions in France and around the world.

In parallel with his internationally known works, Bruno Boudjelal is engaged in a broader approach and refection on photography through socio-artistic interventions in neighborhoods, the supervision of professional internships, and the curating of exhibitions. In 2017 he presented “Ikbal/Arrivées : Pour une nouvelle photographie algérienne” at MAMA (Alger), at IMA : la Cité internationale des arts (Paris) then at Friche belle de Mai (Marseille), as part of the second biennale of world contemporary Arab photographer.

Series


Satka, 2023

Série | Un voyage dans la Russie d'aujourd’hui : Durant l’été 2019 et l’hiver 2020, l’écrivain François Beaune et le photographe Bruno Boudjelal ont séjourné plusieurs semaines à Satka, cité minière au cœur de l’Oural édifiée autour de l’exploitation de la magnésite.

Inventaire de voyage, 2020

Crossing Africa from North to South might not be considered an original idea. Yet, many explorers, travellers (Livingstone, Mungo Park, Savorgnan de Brazza) and before them many merchants (arabs, slave traders among others) have done it.

The Invisible, 2020

« When last March the government decided to establish a curfew, I had no intention of photographing that period. On the first day, March 17, 2020, I went outside for an hour to do my daily walk. » Bruno Boudjelal

Departure Landscapes, 2013

« The Departure Landscapes were undertaken as a continuation of the Harragas project
in the coastal regions of Annaba and Oran where clandestine migrants set out for Europe. » Bruno Boudjelal

Frantz Fanon, 2013

« When I first went to Martinique, where my wife was born, I felt an unsettling attachment to the place, a sensation of familiarity. My subsequent visits made this feeling all the stronger. » Bruno Boudjelal

Movement, 2013

From 1993 to 2003, I couldn’t move around freely in Algeria and all the travelling I managed to do was limited to very specific and seemingly safe places: where my family lived (Sétif and the surrounding country) and at the homes of various friends (Algiers, Annaba, Bejaïa, Oran).

Scrapbook (1993-2003)

Between 1993 and 2003, Bruno Boudjelal created the notebooks of his successive trips to Algeria. Between logbook and diary, these booklets testify both to a personal experience and to the reality of today's Algeria.

Algeria from East to West, 2003

« ...I tried again to go wherever I could; but traveling in Algeria is, each time, a painful and difficult experience. It borders on the unspeakable. I always have the impression of falling into a bottomless pit from which I will never get out. » Bruno Boudjelal

Benthala, The Places of a Massacre, 2002

« On the night of September 22-23, 1997, during a night of horror, more than 400 people were massacred in Bentalha. During my stays in Algeria following this massacre, I often thought of visiting these places. But this did not happen, for lack of courage or fear of not knowing what to do there. » Bruno Boudjelal

Alger, 2001

"I feel very uncomfortable again in the country; the general climate seems extremely tense. I have an order for several newspapers, the subject is the revival of Algerian youth. » Bruno Boudjelal

Journey at Setif (1993-1999)

I was always convinced that I was from here until one day in May 1993 when I found myself in Algeria. I had gone there with a total ignorance of what was happening there. I wanted to cross the country from east to west and try to find my family. My father, with whom I had an appointment the day before my departure so that he could give me information, did not come.

Satka, 2023

Série | Un voyage dans la Russie d'aujourd’hui : Durant l’été 2019 et l’hiver 2020, l’écrivain François Beaune et le photographe Bruno Boudjelal ont séjourné plusieurs semaines à Satka, cité minière au cœur de l’Oural édifiée autour de l’exploitation de la magnésite.

Inventaire de voyage, 2020

Crossing Africa from North to South might not be considered an original idea. Yet, many explorers, travellers (Livingstone, Mungo Park, Savorgnan de Brazza) and before them many merchants (arabs, slave traders among others) have done it.

The Invisible, 2020

« When last March the government decided to establish a curfew, I had no intention of photographing that period. On the first day, March 17, 2020, I went outside for an hour to do my daily walk. » Bruno Boudjelal

Departure Landscapes, 2013

« The Departure Landscapes were undertaken as a continuation of the Harragas project
in the coastal regions of Annaba and Oran where clandestine migrants set out for Europe. » Bruno Boudjelal

Frantz Fanon, 2013

« When I first went to Martinique, where my wife was born, I felt an unsettling attachment to the place, a sensation of familiarity. My subsequent visits made this feeling all the stronger. » Bruno Boudjelal

Movement, 2013

From 1993 to 2003, I couldn’t move around freely in Algeria and all the travelling I managed to do was limited to very specific and seemingly safe places: where my family lived (Sétif and the surrounding country) and at the homes of various friends (Algiers, Annaba, Bejaïa, Oran).

Scrapbook (1993-2003)

Between 1993 and 2003, Bruno Boudjelal created the notebooks of his successive trips to Algeria. Between logbook and diary, these booklets testify both to a personal experience and to the reality of today's Algeria.

Algeria from East to West, 2003

« ...I tried again to go wherever I could; but traveling in Algeria is, each time, a painful and difficult experience. It borders on the unspeakable. I always have the impression of falling into a bottomless pit from which I will never get out. » Bruno Boudjelal

Benthala, The Places of a Massacre, 2002

« On the night of September 22-23, 1997, during a night of horror, more than 400 people were massacred in Bentalha. During my stays in Algeria following this massacre, I often thought of visiting these places. But this did not happen, for lack of courage or fear of not knowing what to do there. » Bruno Boudjelal

Alger, 2001

"I feel very uncomfortable again in the country; the general climate seems extremely tense. I have an order for several newspapers, the subject is the revival of Algerian youth. » Bruno Boudjelal

Journey at Setif (1993-1999)

I was always convinced that I was from here until one day in May 1993 when I found myself in Algeria. I had gone there with a total ignorance of what was happening there. I wanted to cross the country from east to west and try to find my family. My father, with whom I had an appointment the day before my departure so that he could give me information, did not come.

Satka, 2023

Série | Un voyage dans la Russie d'aujourd’hui : Durant l’été 2019 et l’hiver 2020, l’écrivain François Beaune et le photographe Bruno Boudjelal ont séjourné plusieurs semaines à Satka, cité minière au cœur de l’Oural édifiée autour de l’exploitation de la magnésite.

Inventaire de voyage, 2020

Crossing Africa from North to South might not be considered an original idea. Yet, many explorers, travellers (Livingstone, Mungo Park, Savorgnan de Brazza) and before them many merchants (arabs, slave traders among others) have done it.

The Invisible, 2020

« When last March the government decided to establish a curfew, I had no intention of photographing that period. On the first day, March 17, 2020, I went outside for an hour to do my daily walk. » Bruno Boudjelal

Departure Landscapes, 2013

« The Departure Landscapes were undertaken as a continuation of the Harragas project
in the coastal regions of Annaba and Oran where clandestine migrants set out for Europe. » Bruno Boudjelal

Frantz Fanon, 2013

« When I first went to Martinique, where my wife was born, I felt an unsettling attachment to the place, a sensation of familiarity. My subsequent visits made this feeling all the stronger. » Bruno Boudjelal

Movement, 2013

From 1993 to 2003, I couldn’t move around freely in Algeria and all the travelling I managed to do was limited to very specific and seemingly safe places: where my family lived (Sétif and the surrounding country) and at the homes of various friends (Algiers, Annaba, Bejaïa, Oran).

Scrapbook (1993-2003)

Between 1993 and 2003, Bruno Boudjelal created the notebooks of his successive trips to Algeria. Between logbook and diary, these booklets testify both to a personal experience and to the reality of today's Algeria.

Algeria from East to West, 2003

« ...I tried again to go wherever I could; but traveling in Algeria is, each time, a painful and difficult experience. It borders on the unspeakable. I always have the impression of falling into a bottomless pit from which I will never get out. » Bruno Boudjelal

Benthala, The Places of a Massacre, 2002

« On the night of September 22-23, 1997, during a night of horror, more than 400 people were massacred in Bentalha. During my stays in Algeria following this massacre, I often thought of visiting these places. But this did not happen, for lack of courage or fear of not knowing what to do there. » Bruno Boudjelal

Alger, 2001

"I feel very uncomfortable again in the country; the general climate seems extremely tense. I have an order for several newspapers, the subject is the revival of Algerian youth. » Bruno Boudjelal

Journey at Setif (1993-1999)

I was always convinced that I was from here until one day in May 1993 when I found myself in Algeria. I had gone there with a total ignorance of what was happening there. I wanted to cross the country from east to west and try to find my family. My father, with whom I had an appointment the day before my departure so that he could give me information, did not come.

video


“WHY DO YOU VOTE? ” is a project by Bruno Boudjelal and Rodolphe Risse (2017)

It is a video installation based on films made with smartphones by young adults during three workshops held in France in Marseille (Frais Vallon district), and in Germany in Neustadt and Mannheim (Jungbusch district).

The video installation on eight screens was presented as part of the “HAMBACH DEMOKRATIEFESTIVAL” from 14 to 16 September 2018 at Hambach Castle. This installation was then presented in Mannheim at the end of 2018 and in Marseille in 2019.

4 minutes
Realization : Bruno Boudjelal & Rodolphe Risse
Images : Bruno Boudjelal & Rodolphe Risse

Interviews


Bruno Boudjelal – Murmure
Des mots de minuit

2020

Confinement refers to the walls and places that protect us, in principle, from the virus. There are suspended or, around them, speak to us these objects which make a personal universe or a bitter. Which is the one of those who, for the moment only, can’t yet return to the plateau Des mots de minuit? Here is Murmure, a few confidences of uncertain times from these budding filmmakers. Today the photographer Bruno Boudjelal and his daughter Mona.

Bruno Boudjelal, photographe, artiste en résidence
FIFDH Genève

2019

Each year, the FIFDH honors an artist and offers him, in partnership with the commune of Meyrin, an artistic residency allowing him to create an original work. After the filmmaker Rithy Panh in 2017 and the cartoonist Guy Delisle in 2018, the Festival is pleased to welcome this year the photographer Bruno Boudjelal, member of the famous Agence VU’.
A committed artist, a fervent defender of pan-Africanism, Bruno Boudjelal constantly questions his own identity and confronts us with ours. He will present at the Festival, and for the first time, “Ne mourrons pas fatigués”, a project that addresses the issue of migration flows through narration and personal testimony. A highlighting of the resilience shown by women and men during their recent or past migratory journeys.

Bruno Boudjelal, photographe des invisibles
Des mots de minuit

2018

From a constraint, he has adopted a style which, by moving away from the conventions of photography, becomes an evidence of sensitive truth.
Born in France of a mixed couple, Bruno Boudjejal accompanies his father – who immigrated to France in 1952 – to visit his country of origin: Algeria. A friend lent him a camera, so he might as well fix the memories.

Habiterai-je un jour dans la maison ?
Ville de Clermont-Ferrand

2018

Bruno Boudjelal exhibited at the Fontfreyde Photographic Center from May 4 to September 23, 2018.
He worked for two years in the northern districts of Clermont-Ferrand in Montpellier, where people remembered their origins to represent today their past lives as much as their present. The exhibition is entitled “Will I ever live in the house? A photographic collection that will be the subject of a restitution along the tramway line in September 2018.

Algérie, clos comme on ferme un livre
TV5 Monde

2015

Guest of #MOE on Sunday, December 13, 2015, photographer Bruno Boudjelal, looks back on his latest series of photos on Algeria which is the subject of a book, “Algérie, clos comme on ferme un livre”, published by Le Bec en l’air, and which received the Nadar 2015 award.

Circulation
TV5 Monde

2015

New edition of the PHOTOMED festival in Sanary-sur-Mer in the South of France. A festival that takes us to other shores of the Mediterranean. Dozens of artists on the bill, among them the French-Algerian photographer Bruno Boudjelal. His exhibition “Circulation” is dedicated to his long years of itinerancy in Algeria, Bruno also exhibits young Algerian photographers that he discovered in Algiers during a residency.

exhibitions


Goudron Tanger-Le Cap

Festival l’Œil Urbain

From October 2 to November 29, 2020

La traversée des apparences

FIFDH 2019

From March 9 to April 7, 2019

Voyages à Setif

Institut du Monde Arabe, Tourcoing, France

February 28 to July 13, 2019

BOOKS


Who knows tomorrow ?

Éditions de l'Œil - 2010

Africultures

Filigranes Éditions - 2004

Gurbet : Turcs d'ici

Éditions de l’imprimeur - 1996

Who knows tomorrow ?

Éditions de l'Œil - 2010

Africultures

Filigranes Éditions - 2004

Gurbet : Turcs d'ici

Éditions de l’imprimeur - 1996

Who knows tomorrow ?

Éditions de l'Œil - 2010

Africultures

Filigranes Éditions - 2004

Gurbet : Turcs d'ici

Éditions de l’imprimeur - 1996