Olivia Gay

(France)

Winner

After completing a degree in Art History at the University of Bordeaux III (1993/95), Olivia Gay studied photography at the New England School of Photography in Boston (1995/97), then soon after headed to Cuba to produce her first photographs: prostitutes in Havana.
Returning to France in 1998, she started working for the press: Libération, The New York Times, VSD, and Le Monde.
A photographer and author since 1998, Gay has studied the construction of the female body in social or professional environments, through posture and body language. She has explored the female form in scenes set in a factory, in a lace workshop, at a supermarket, at home, and soon she will feature the farming women of Normandy.
For Olivia Gay, the photograph must capture humanity in a gesture or a look. After immersing herself in a place, spending several weeks or months at a time there, she uses her images to recreate the encounter that has taken place between her and her subject.