Pierre de Vallombreuse, from the series Peuple, 2012 © Pierre de Vallombreuse
French photographer Pierrre de Vallombreuse won the Prix International Planète Albert Kahn 2017. Born in 1962, Pierrre de Vallombreuse is a photographer known for collecting and producing more than 130,000 photographs on over fifty indigenous peoples. Graduated from Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts-Décoratifs, he devoted himself to photography after wanted to become a cartoonist during a stay alongside the Punan people, living on the island of South-East Asia Borneo. From then on, he documented forms of lives of these little-known peoples in the West for long periods, sometimes over several years. He lived with the Palawan, eponymous people settled in the southwestern island of the Phillipines. His work was acclaimed at the Rencontres d’Arles in 1989. He has since released resounding works, including Souveraines (Editions Arthaud, 2015), Hommes Racines (Editions de la Martinière, 2012) or Taw Batu (Éditions du Musée Albert– Khan, 1994).
The International Planet Albert Khan Prize had previously been awarded to Raymond Depardon, Stanley Greene, Françoise Huguier and Marc Riboud. The 2017 Jury was composed of Gilles Baud-Berthier, Sophie Bernard, Christophe Brault, Valérie Calazel, Jean-François Camp, Renaud Corlouër, Jean-François Fortchantre, Nelly Perlade and Bernard Perrine. François Huguier presided the assembly.
