Mathieu Asselin


Mathieu Asselin is a French-Venezuelan photographer artist specializing in documentary photography and portraiture related to social issues. He is based in New York City.
In 2017 his book Monsanto: A Photographic Investigation, "a powerful indictment of corporate power and ecological irresponsibility", won the Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation First PhotoBook Award and was a finalist for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize.

Life and work

Asselin began his career working on film productions in Caracas, Venezuela and then as a photographer in Europe. He currently works as a photographer in New York City.
In 2011 Asselin photographed Occupy Wall Street protestors in Zuccotti Park, using a small open-air studio. The same year he made portraits of people who had lived through the 2011 Joplin tornado in Joplin, Missouri.
In 2014, he was Artist in Residence with Imagine Science Films.
For his book Monsanto: A Photographic Investigation, Asselin spent five years photographing the damaged landscape around Anniston, Alabama, caused by a Monsanto chemical factory. Sean O'Hagan, writing in The Guardian, described it as "a powerful indictment of corporate power and ecological irresponsibility", "a book about corporate impunity that unfolds through the deft interweaving of Asselin’s own images and a wealth of found material, from personal testimonies to courtroom files." O'hagan included it in his "best photography books of 2017".

Publications

Solo exhibitions