Gaëlle Girbes begins the photojournalism in 2006. Her reports lead her in Africa, in South-East Asia and in the Eastern Europe but also in closer but more not necessarily accessible worlds, that of the circus or that of the sport, as the universe of the professional boxing or still that of Rroms of the Parisian suburb. The photojournalism is for her before any an adventure for the meeting of others, whether it is the personal history of the individuals either the collective history of the peoples. She applies for the attention of the look, which returns any interesting history, to observe to understand, to know, to tell without deforming according to so Henri Cartier-Bresson's rule: " to photograph, it is to put on the same line of sight the head, the eye and the heart. " In 2010, she joins the Webistan agency of the photographer Reza, with whom she works until March, 2012. Since then, she collaborates with the photoreporter Patrick Chauvel. She collaborates regularly with the French press and international. She integrates the SIPA agency in April, 2018. And work at present to a long-term project in Ukraine where she is based.
2018 - Photogrvphy Grant, 2018 - IWPA, 2017 - ANI, 2016 - ANI
Ukraine 2017. Four years the war continues in Ukraine, the agreements of Minsk I, II and III did not obtain convincing results. The diplomatic steps introduced by France and Germany to try to make Vladimir Putin yield remained vain. Far from the political comfort of lounges, in the east of Ukraine, the war remains and persists between pro-Russian separatist rebels and the Ukrainian army.On the Ukrainian front, it is a war of trench, a slow war, a war of attrition. At the bottom of these long intestines of ground, in buildings destroyed by firings of heavy weapons of the men charge rifles, observe the horizon, wait… In the reality of the war they live under rubble, two feet under the ground.
Ukraine 2017. In Donbass region the war lasts for 3 years, with all its victims: Victims in fights, soldiers fall every month, but the wound who get grow bigger, deeper. The civilians living on the frontline also live the consequences of the conflict on a daily basis, the survival, the loss of the close relations, The lack of everything, to live the war it is miles things usual that become complex and which a man changes for ever. "We had so many roses, and now we are just a grey zone". The impact is visible on the walls of their houses, but also in their everyday life. They cannot leave: « to go where? » Without resources other than their work and their house both was situated on the hot spot of this conflict, are condemned as numerous civilians Ukrainian to live the war.
Ukraine 12/2017 to 01/2018 More than three years since the war settled down in Ukraine. A war of position took place, trenches grew bigger, camps of fortune were built.The soldiers live there, they live in these intestines of ground, under rubble, for sometimes more than 8 months. The hope for victory, for peace, faded, replaced by a daily life of war, a daily life of poverty. In spite of those particularly difficult living conditions, in this improbable universe stuck in the black mud of the Donbass, the symbols of Christmas take place, moments of enjoyment intervene, a ray of light through by moment. The day of peace in the world, transports itself in the war, in the heart of the trenches of Donbass. They celebrated Christmas, with what they can, on January 7th, according to the Julian calendar. Despite a ceasefire, there was 35 firings, 7 soldiers was wounded. A soldier died on December 24th.