Eugénie Baccot is a French freelance photographer. Her work straddles the border between photojournalism and auteur photography, and her editorial projects have been published in both the French and international press (Libération, Washington Post, Days Japan, etc.). Her photographic approach as an author with a strong narrative character demands a documentary, highly human approach to the subjects to which she devotes herself.
Eugénie is interested in people in their environment. She travels as a reporter, documenting the daily lives of unconventional or alternative communities, sometimes in relation to questions of identity and how they are represented.
In 2018, she was awarded the Health Journalism Grant by the European Journalism Centre in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2021, she was awarded a creation grant for contemporary documentary photography from the CNAP (Centre National des Arts Plastiques) with photographer Cyril Abad. Finally, her Nsenene Paradise series was awarded the Canon Discovery Prize by the International Women in Photo Association (IWPA) in 2022.
In 2022, the Alliance discovered the IWPA and decided to organise an exhibition featuring the work of three of the association’s member photographers: Myriam Firuzi, Manyatsa Monyamane and Eugénie Baccot. To support the promotion of women photographers, an artistic residency was organised in collaboration with the Key Art Gallery, located in Serrekunda, to host Eugénie Baccot for a month in the Musa Ngum house. The project had two components. Firstly, Eugénie Baccot produced her own photo essay. She chose to focus on the Hakus and Krios, Gambian Christian communities, most of whose members live in Banjul. During her stay in Gambia, Eugénie tried to understand them as best she could, by meeting them, attending several of their masses and, above all, spending several days walking the streets of Banjul in the sunshine, looking for traces of the past.
Alongside this work, Eugénie took advantage of her visit to pass on her skills and expertise to five young Gambian amateur and semi-professional photographers. Over the course of four workshops, organised in partnership with Key Art Gallery, the participants were able to learn both photographic theory and practical skills, with field trips organised and an introduction to photo retouching, made possible by the provision of Gambia Tech Project equipment.
At the end of the residency, the opening of the IWPA exhibition was organised in the gallery of the Alliance Française in Banjul. This was an opportunity for Eugénie to unveil her work on the Hakus and Krios to the public. The five participants then presented the photos taken during the workshops.