David
Sauveur

David Sauveur

biography

French photographer and illustrator born in 1974, represented by VU’ since 2001, lives in the Côtes d’Armor (France)

Born to a painter father and an architect mother, David Sauveur was introduced to the visual arts at a very early age and devoted himself to photography as a teenager. In 1994, at the age of nineteen, he made his first reportage in Mexico, on Zapatism.

He developed a career as a freelance photographer, reporting from the field, in Afghanistan, Palestine, Lebanon, Sierra Leone, Kosovo… However, it is the accuracy and empathy of his approach to conflicts that distinguish his work, carried by a practice of photography that is similar to Zen Archery. Regularly published by the press (Le Monde, Libération, Le Courrier International), he was awarded the “Attention Talent” prize in 2000, the Biarritz Terre d’Images International Festival prize (France) in 2001, the World Press Photo Masterclass prize in 2004, and the Grand Prix of the Angers International Festival of Scoop and Journalism in 2006.

In counterpoint to these reports, marked by the violence of the world he is confronted with, David Sauveur has developped a more meditative personal work.

With Polaroid, whose specific color creates a subtle feeling of distance, fragility and eternity, he offers small sensitive squares where the world seems on the border of disappearance, and beauty, “suspended between the beginning and the end of time”.  In Jerusalem, he pushes this visual research further by also making reportage images with this reputedly ” non-professional ” tool. All of this work on Jerusalem, carried out over five years, challenges the conventions of the image of the city, while revealing it differently.

In 2011, shortly before the opening of Visa pour l’image, David Sauveur is the victim of a violent attack in the streets of Collioure which, after a long coma, has resulted in serious sequelae. Nevertheless, he remains totally present to his work and his history. He follows his past works which continue to be exhibited and integrated into public and private collections (CNAP, etc.)… Keeping the taste of beauty and his relationship with others.

Series

Mignonnes, 2023

Série | Allons voir si la rose... and savour this essence when the disorder of the world, for the moment, no longer belongs to us.

Libya unrest, 2011

Once upon a time there was a revolution… It is the story of a people delving into war, the moment they chose to take arms against their tyrant to defend their freedom.

Pop Life, 2010

When a naked Boby Lapointe, in his bath, meets the like of an androgynous Allandin-Sane-era David Bowie, that's because photographer David Sauveur is playing with his own musical references.

Unnamed, 2011

The Tao we try to reach is not the Tao itself, the name that is namable is not its eternal name...

Nowhere, 2010

Nowhere, shampoo, TV, combat, boyzone, Slim tie, showdown, can’t stop, Nowhere, shampoo, TV, combat, boyzone, Slim tie, showdown, can’t stop

Greece’s riots, 2008

Demonstrations Alexis Grigoropoulos’ death, killed by the police. Fights between police forces and youth happened in Athens, Rhodes, and Salonique. In the capital, the most virulent young people are gathered in Polytechnique University, surrounded by policemen.

Palestine, Everything’s normal, 2008

«Everything’s ok» according to dispatches. No major events on the field except Gaza has become a prohibited area, a giant prisoners camp where journalists, diplomats, and humanitarian people need to beg for the unobtainable permit allowed in the «only Middle-East’s democracy»...

Youth (Rennes Rock’Roll), 2008

Youth demonstration in Rennes in Brittany in December 2005 against the ban on the Transmusicales teknival and in March 2006 against the CPE law and job insecurity.

Sao Tomé & Principe, Gabon, 2007

It's a small archipelago, right on the Equator line, off the Gabonese coasts. Sao Tome & Principe is the smallest state of Africa, with a little less than 300,000 inhabitants.

Afghanistan, Hazarajat, 2006

David Sauveur went to Afghanistan in November 2006 with Action Against Hunger, who set up a humanitarian program to help the Hazaras.

War in Lebanon, 2006

In 2006, Lebanon was under Israeli attacks as this latter wanted to flush out this country just out of long years of civil war. Between fatalism and horror revival, David Sauveur walked through the town and fixed urban landscapes that have become lunar.

Le Mont Saint Michel, 2006

The Mont Saint Michel and its bay in Normandy, France.

Gaza trip, 2004

Rafah in the Gaza Strip, refugees and settlers face each other in February 2004, a few days after Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel announced his intention to dismantle all the settlements in the Gaza Strip without specifying a deadline.

Les Balkans, 2003

The second World War ended up with a pact that splitted the different influence zones between East and West.

W National Park of Niger, 2003

Its name is due to the shape of the Niger River which is like the letter. The western park is crossed by the Tapoa and the Mekrou, tributaries of the third River of Africa. There is a varied wildlife, from baobabs to bamboos, baboons and antelopes.

Palestine, a statement, 2002

Photographed with a panoramic lens in a treatment where the colours are pushed up, this photograhic series attempts to assess the statement. What about, after a year and a half of Intifada, the geography of the occupation? What are the scars left on Palestinian soil by the Israeli offensive?

Second Intifada - Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 2001

The events of the second Intifada are described as a campaign of Palestinian terrorism by Israel, while they are described as a revolt by the Palestinians.

Les Pyrénées-Atlantique, 2001

Beaches, pastures and snowy villages: a few Polaroid snapshots of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques region, South West of France.

Petra, 2000

Situated between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea and inhabited since prehistoric times, the capital of the Nabataeans carved into the rock became during the Hellenistic and Roman periods a great caravan centre for the trade of incense from Arabia, silk from China and spices from India, a crossroads between Arabia, Egypt and Syria-Phenicia.

To the last path, 2000

To the last path. This is what is written, in english, arabic and hebrew on a road sign at the south-west of the old town of Jerusalem, on the edge of the Kidron valley.

Mignonnes, 2023

Série | Allons voir si la rose... and savour this essence when the disorder of the world, for the moment, no longer belongs to us.

Libya unrest, 2011

Once upon a time there was a revolution… It is the story of a people delving into war, the moment they chose to take arms against their tyrant to defend their freedom.

Pop Life, 2010

When a naked Boby Lapointe, in his bath, meets the like of an androgynous Allandin-Sane-era David Bowie, that's because photographer David Sauveur is playing with his own musical references.

Unnamed, 2011

The Tao we try to reach is not the Tao itself, the name that is namable is not its eternal name...

Nowhere, 2010

Nowhere, shampoo, TV, combat, boyzone, Slim tie, showdown, can’t stop, Nowhere, shampoo, TV, combat, boyzone, Slim tie, showdown, can’t stop

Greece’s riots, 2008

Demonstrations Alexis Grigoropoulos’ death, killed by the police. Fights between police forces and youth happened in Athens, Rhodes, and Salonique. In the capital, the most virulent young people are gathered in Polytechnique University, surrounded by policemen.

Palestine, Everything’s normal, 2008

«Everything’s ok» according to dispatches. No major events on the field except Gaza has become a prohibited area, a giant prisoners camp where journalists, diplomats, and humanitarian people need to beg for the unobtainable permit allowed in the «only Middle-East’s democracy»...

Youth (Rennes Rock’Roll), 2008

Youth demonstration in Rennes in Brittany in December 2005 against the ban on the Transmusicales teknival and in March 2006 against the CPE law and job insecurity.

Sao Tomé & Principe, Gabon, 2007

It's a small archipelago, right on the Equator line, off the Gabonese coasts. Sao Tome & Principe is the smallest state of Africa, with a little less than 300,000 inhabitants.

Afghanistan, Hazarajat, 2006

David Sauveur went to Afghanistan in November 2006 with Action Against Hunger, who set up a humanitarian program to help the Hazaras.

War in Lebanon, 2006

In 2006, Lebanon was under Israeli attacks as this latter wanted to flush out this country just out of long years of civil war. Between fatalism and horror revival, David Sauveur walked through the town and fixed urban landscapes that have become lunar.

Le Mont Saint Michel, 2006

The Mont Saint Michel and its bay in Normandy, France.

Gaza trip, 2004

Rafah in the Gaza Strip, refugees and settlers face each other in February 2004, a few days after Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel announced his intention to dismantle all the settlements in the Gaza Strip without specifying a deadline.

Les Balkans, 2003

The second World War ended up with a pact that splitted the different influence zones between East and West.

W National Park of Niger, 2003

Its name is due to the shape of the Niger River which is like the letter. The western park is crossed by the Tapoa and the Mekrou, tributaries of the third River of Africa. There is a varied wildlife, from baobabs to bamboos, baboons and antelopes.

Palestine, a statement, 2002

Photographed with a panoramic lens in a treatment where the colours are pushed up, this photograhic series attempts to assess the statement. What about, after a year and a half of Intifada, the geography of the occupation? What are the scars left on Palestinian soil by the Israeli offensive?

Second Intifada - Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 2001

The events of the second Intifada are described as a campaign of Palestinian terrorism by Israel, while they are described as a revolt by the Palestinians.

Les Pyrénées-Atlantique, 2001

Beaches, pastures and snowy villages: a few Polaroid snapshots of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques region, South West of France.

Petra, 2000

Situated between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea and inhabited since prehistoric times, the capital of the Nabataeans carved into the rock became during the Hellenistic and Roman periods a great caravan centre for the trade of incense from Arabia, silk from China and spices from India, a crossroads between Arabia, Egypt and Syria-Phenicia.

To the last path, 2000

To the last path. This is what is written, in english, arabic and hebrew on a road sign at the south-west of the old town of Jerusalem, on the edge of the Kidron valley.

Mignonnes, 2023

Série | Allons voir si la rose... and savour this essence when the disorder of the world, for the moment, no longer belongs to us.

Libya unrest, 2011

Once upon a time there was a revolution… It is the story of a people delving into war, the moment they chose to take arms against their tyrant to defend their freedom.

Pop Life, 2010

When a naked Boby Lapointe, in his bath, meets the like of an androgynous Allandin-Sane-era David Bowie, that's because photographer David Sauveur is playing with his own musical references.

Unnamed, 2011

The Tao we try to reach is not the Tao itself, the name that is namable is not its eternal name...

Nowhere, 2010

Nowhere, shampoo, TV, combat, boyzone, Slim tie, showdown, can’t stop, Nowhere, shampoo, TV, combat, boyzone, Slim tie, showdown, can’t stop

Greece’s riots, 2008

Demonstrations Alexis Grigoropoulos’ death, killed by the police. Fights between police forces and youth happened in Athens, Rhodes, and Salonique. In the capital, the most virulent young people are gathered in Polytechnique University, surrounded by policemen.

Palestine, Everything’s normal, 2008

«Everything’s ok» according to dispatches. No major events on the field except Gaza has become a prohibited area, a giant prisoners camp where journalists, diplomats, and humanitarian people need to beg for the unobtainable permit allowed in the «only Middle-East’s democracy»...

Youth (Rennes Rock’Roll), 2008

Youth demonstration in Rennes in Brittany in December 2005 against the ban on the Transmusicales teknival and in March 2006 against the CPE law and job insecurity.

Sao Tomé & Principe, Gabon, 2007

It's a small archipelago, right on the Equator line, off the Gabonese coasts. Sao Tome & Principe is the smallest state of Africa, with a little less than 300,000 inhabitants.

Afghanistan, Hazarajat, 2006

David Sauveur went to Afghanistan in November 2006 with Action Against Hunger, who set up a humanitarian program to help the Hazaras.

War in Lebanon, 2006

In 2006, Lebanon was under Israeli attacks as this latter wanted to flush out this country just out of long years of civil war. Between fatalism and horror revival, David Sauveur walked through the town and fixed urban landscapes that have become lunar.

Le Mont Saint Michel, 2006

The Mont Saint Michel and its bay in Normandy, France.

Gaza trip, 2004

Rafah in the Gaza Strip, refugees and settlers face each other in February 2004, a few days after Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel announced his intention to dismantle all the settlements in the Gaza Strip without specifying a deadline.

Les Balkans, 2003

The second World War ended up with a pact that splitted the different influence zones between East and West.

W National Park of Niger, 2003

Its name is due to the shape of the Niger River which is like the letter. The western park is crossed by the Tapoa and the Mekrou, tributaries of the third River of Africa. There is a varied wildlife, from baobabs to bamboos, baboons and antelopes.

Palestine, a statement, 2002

Photographed with a panoramic lens in a treatment where the colours are pushed up, this photograhic series attempts to assess the statement. What about, after a year and a half of Intifada, the geography of the occupation? What are the scars left on Palestinian soil by the Israeli offensive?

Second Intifada - Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 2001

The events of the second Intifada are described as a campaign of Palestinian terrorism by Israel, while they are described as a revolt by the Palestinians.

Les Pyrénées-Atlantique, 2001

Beaches, pastures and snowy villages: a few Polaroid snapshots of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques region, South West of France.

Petra, 2000

Situated between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea and inhabited since prehistoric times, the capital of the Nabataeans carved into the rock became during the Hellenistic and Roman periods a great caravan centre for the trade of incense from Arabia, silk from China and spices from India, a crossroads between Arabia, Egypt and Syria-Phenicia.

To the last path, 2000

To the last path. This is what is written, in english, arabic and hebrew on a road sign at the south-west of the old town of Jerusalem, on the edge of the Kidron valley.

Interviews

Conférence “Correspondants de guerre aujourd’hui”
Archives déparmentales d’Île-et-vilaine
—
2010

Photographer David Sauveur presents his work at a series of conferences on war correspondents.

Books

To the Last Path

Le bec en l'air - 2021

To the Last Path

Le bec en l'air - 2021

To the Last Path

Le bec en l'air - 2021

Awards

Winner of Grand Award at the International Scoop and Journalism Festival in Angers.

For his report on the war in Lebanon

2006

Award of the International Festival Biarritz Terre d’Images (France)

2001

“Attention Talent” Award from FNAC.

2000