DIRECTORY 2025

Valentin Valette | Photography

Valentin Joseph Valette is a French author-photographer of Algerian origin and a doctoral student in visual anthropology. He is based between France, North Africa, and the Gulf region.

Driven by both his photographic practice and his studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, Valette explores the use of visual arts as a research instrument. His interest in the Arab and Muslim worlds, shaped by his studies in sociology and political science at the Institute of Political Studies of Sciences Po Aix-en-Provence, has led him to work on photographic commissions, long-term personal projects, and academic research, primarily in France, North Africa, and the Gulf countries.

From 2021 to 2024, he worked at the Research Institute for Development (IRD) in Tunisia, where he produced his first research film, currently in editing, and conducted a sociological survey. During this time, he was also commissioned by Médecins du Monde to create a photographic project on migration, specifically focusing on the harragas, a project he has pursued since 2023.

Valette has been engaged in a long-term project examining the evolving political, economic, and social dynamics of the Persian Gulf countries. The first chapter carried out in the Sultanate of Oman between 2021 and 2023, titled Ashes of the Arabian’s Pearl, has been shortlisted for the Leica Oscar Barnack Award 2024, the Kolga Tbilisi Award 2024, the PhMuseum Award 2024, the Art Photoc Barcelona Award 2024, and the Belfast Photo Festival 2024, among others.

In early 2024, he secured funding for a PhD project in visual anthropology titled The Harkis and Algeria: Links, Experiences, and Circulations, which intersects with the sociology of migration, memory, and identity. He is affiliated with the Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology (IDEAS) at Aix-Marseille University.

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