Nourished by the images of Diane Arbus, Gilles Favier has strived since his beginnings in photography in 1981 to take a humanist look at the margins of society. In 2002, he began important documentary work following in the footsteps of the ethnologist Pierre Verger. His involvement in information, his relationships with the daily press (notably Libération) have never prevented him from developing personal projects which are all linked to his commitment, to his desire to analyze and question the contemporary world. Determined to build a documentary corpus, he lets himself be carried away by the meetings to put it into shape. He likes frontality, the absence of play in front of the lens, a form of rigor in the shooting which opens up other freedoms. He affirms the need for a non-spectacular form, to give an account. He asserts his role as documentary photographer, analyst, witness, accomplice. He was one of the founders of the VU' agency in 1986 and created the ImageSingulières festival in Sète. He also teaches at the Technical School of Photography (ETPA) in Toulouse and at the Higher School of Journalism (ESJ) in Montpellier.
