Philippe Guionie completed a history and geography degree before using photography as his main communication tool. Specialized in African topics, he traveled across the continent for a decade. His work examines notions of identity and memory. According to Christian Caujolle, one of the founder of VU' photo agency, "he captures surfaces only to better analyze their depth".> Read more
After documenting the lives of forgotten foreign sniper forces within the French army, Fula albinos and lakeside dwellers as well as touring the shores of the Black Sea, Philippe Guionie focused on the descendants of Black slaves sent to Latin America in the 16th century. Found in Bolivia, Columbia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru and Chili, these African prisoners were planted well beyond the Caribbean or Brazil.
Through his black and white photographs, he tries to go back in time, a search for the origins of these Afro-descendants and, thus, reveal an overlooked diaspora. "Those I met were surprised that someone who came from so far away was interested in their history. We had one thing in common: Africa, real for me, imagined for them. I was the small white man who carried the history of a continent."
A member of the agency Myop since 2009, Philippe Guionie also served as a jury member for the Carmignac Gestion Photojournalism Award in 2011. He has been exhibited in several cities in France, Africa and America as well as published in Le Monde, Libération and, of course, Polka Magazine. He teaches image semiotics at the ETPA in Toulouse, France.
Juan Valentin Vasquez nicknamed "Bingo Bingo", Ocumare de la Costa, Venezuela, 2009