Julien Gidoin

Julien Gidoin

Julien Gidoin’s practice sits at the intersection of documentary cinema and photography. After many years working as a cinematographer, he has developed a strong sensitivity to time, distance, and the ethics of looking. Photography, for him, is not a spectacular act but a pause — a moment taken on the margins of filmmaking, when the camera is set down.
His work is grounded in duration and repetition. He photographs situations he knows and people he encounters over time, favoring a discreet presence and relationships built through continuity. The resulting images are restrained, predominantly in black and white, with stable framing that deliberately avoids dramatization.
At the core of his work are questions of visibility, abandonment, and collective responsibility. Through long-term projects developed in public spaces, he documents lives unfolding at the margins of institutions and social support systems. Rather than explaining or intervening, Gidoin positions photography as an act of attention — a form of resistance to indifference.
Photography becomes a way to transform a deep, quiet anger in the face of social inequality into a concrete practice: walking, meeting, observing, and giving time to those who are too often unseen.