Alan Gignoux

Commissions

Camera Obscura Refugee project
2019 - present
I am using a camera obscura to photograph migrants. Thew subjects appear as blurry figures against a European urban environment that remains clearly in focus. By using this creative approach, I seek to draw attention to the individual human beings suffering as a result of a “not in my back yard” mentality among EU member states.

Human Accumulations
2016 – present
Working with Art Curator, Jenny Christensson, I’m creating a body of work to document contemporary America. The project draws on the paintings of the Hudson Valley School artist, Regis Gignoux, an ancestor of mine.

University of Missouri Photography Workshop in Cuba, Missouri
Oct 2016

Lebanese Water Project, "We Made Every Living Thing From Water"

November -2015 - May 2016.

A commission by the American University of Beirut to create a Twenty-minute documentary highlighting the political and economic difficulties of supplying water to the Lebanese population.

The El Walid Band, Western Sahara.

February 2015 – projected completion, 2016.
Commissioned by Sandblast Arts to document this famous 1970’s band that sparked political consciousness across the Maghreb. The stills were exhibited at the 100 Year Gallery in London.

The Oil Sands

2010 – present / ongoing I have been working in conjunction with Revolve Magazine following the development of North America’s largest industrial development through the eyes of the residents of Peace River, Fort McMurray and Cold Lake, Alberta.
Completed bodies of work

https://vimeo.com/17566949 https://vimeo.com/25091098 https://vimeo.com/70135081

Chesapeake Bay

June-September 2009 In collaboration with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation developed a stills/multimedia piece on the effects of urban development on the crab population on Maryland’s eastern shore and the resulting implications for the residential community on Tangier Island http://vimeo.com/20416947

Homeland Lost – "The Saharawi” 

March 2005 I worked with Sandblast and the Polisario (the Political Movement for the Freedom of the Western Sahara) on a continuation of the “Homeland Lost” project (see below). I Photographed Saharawi exiles in the Canary Islands, mainland Spain, Mauritania and the refugee camps in Tindouf, Western Algeria. In turn, I photographed their former homes in the Moroccan occupied zone of Western Sahara.

“Homeland Lost – The Palestinians” –

March 2003. I was sponsored by the British Council in East Jerusalem to photograph exiled Palestinians across the Middle East and juxtaposed their portraits with landscapes of what has happened to their homes and villages in present day Israel.

Appalachia - Mountaintops to Moonscapes 

October 2013 I completed an eleven-minute segment on the effects of the coal industry’s policy of mountaintop removal in Wise, Virginia

Residency

Rucka Art Residency in Cesis, Latvia
Oct 2017
My work in Cesis focused on the clear-cutting of the Latvian forests being done by the Ministry of Forestry and private companies. The body of work will be exhibited throughout the town later in 2018.

Belgian Beach Project – January-2011
I worked in conjunction with Belgian gallery de Queest Art, documenting the Belgian

Beach from an aesthetic, social and economic perspective. https://vimeo.com/26636740

“Toronto Street Photography” – Magnum workshop: photographed Toronto street scenes.
April 2011

“Leaving Clarkesdale” – Magnum workshop: Documented the economic demise of the Mississippi Delta and the surviving Blues scene.
April-Nov 2010

“Industreality” – Produced a photographic essay about the effects of post-Soviet industrial decay on communities in the Urals; this piece was the outcome of a NCCA (National Centre for the Contemporary Arts) residency in Ekaterinberg, Russia. September 2008

“Canadian Rangers” – Created a photographic essay on the training of the Inuit Rangers in Taloyoak, Nunavut.

Education

London College of Printing – MA Documentary Photography December 2010 London College of Printing – Professional Photography Practice January 2000