Valerian Mazataud
Photographer
Hans Lucas
Montréal, QC, Canada
Valerian Mazataud is a Montreal based freelance documentary photographer, born in France in 1978.
He is part of the team of photographers at daily newspaper Le Devoir in Montreal since 2018. He has published photos essays with a a number of canadian and international publications (The Globe and Mail, Le Temps, The Walrus, Le Courrier International, Le Monde, , der Spiegel…)
He has shown his work during numerous exhibitions and art installations in artist-run centres, galeries and festivals : The ends of the earth (2014-2020, Rencontres internationales de la photo en Gaspésie, Canada), Great Nordth (2012-2020, Voies Off Arles, France), We are no more (2011-2015, Festival Art souterrain, Montreal, Canada).
A self taught photographer since 2009, he owns a Msc in agronomy with a specialty in marine biology. His projects led him to travel in more than fifty countries around the globe.
He has won various photography awards, including grants from the Canadian council for the arts (CAC) and the Quebec council for the arts (CALQ). He was invited as an artist in residency by the Aberystwyth Arts Centre in Wales as well as at artist-run centres DAÏMÔN, in Gatineau, and Centre VU, in Quebec, Canada. His book liwa mairin was shortlisted for the 2019 Burtynsky Grant.
Since 2015 he shares his time between Canada and Central-America (Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua) where he works on various documentary projects.
He has had exhibitions in various artist-run centers around Canada, as well as during different art festivals (Voies Off Arles, Rencontres internationales de la photo en Gaspesie, Contact photography festival, Art Souterrain…).
He also cycled 21000 km around the world and along the five continents between 2002 and 2004.
2009 - Awards
- Breaking news
- Corporate
- Crisis
- Editorial
- Environment
- Events
- Interview
- Landscape
- Medical
- Portrait
- Reporting
- RISC training
- Underwater
Nueva Esperanza
Valerian Mazataud
Santa Filomena, Peru, 14 march 2013. Palaqueras from Santa Filomena women's association «Nueva Esperanza». The Sotrami cooperative has imposed more security rules on the palaqueras. The women are now using security equipment, children and pregnant workers are forbidden on the slopes, and a security board is in charge of implementing the rules. Some women can gather around a ton of rubble per month, which brings them around 250$, a little bit less than the peruvian official salary. It is today among the very few mines producing fair-trade gold for which around 100 standardized rules have to be respected. Although fair-trade gold represents only a fraction of their production, the coop was able to earn around 100000 $ from fair-trade in 2 years, an amount that has to be reinvested in social and educational projects. Valerian Mazataud I hanslucas.com
Cotapata
Valerian Mazataud
Cotapata, Bolivia, 26 march 2013. A gold miner from Cotapata cooperative mine after a day of work. Some workers end their shifts at 4 pm, as other start it. In january 2011, the bolivian cooperative became the world's first mine to produce fair-trade produced gold, after a partnership between the Alliance for responsible mining (ARM), a Colombian NGO, and the Fairtrade international organization. Valerian Mazataud I hanslucas.com
The spearhunter
Valerian Mazataud
March 2015. Kruta, Honduras. In the mangrove near the Miskito village of Kruta, a man fish for his meal armed with a speargun.
