Alexis Pazoumian (1988) is a French-Armenian photographer and director based in Paris, with a degree in graphic design (2012). He takes a social documentary approach to his art, focusing on communities living on the fringes of society. From Armenia to the United States, and more recently in Siberia, notions of humanity, identity and society are at the center of his work.
His work has been featured in international exhibitions in Los Angeles, Bratislava, Paris, Lyon, Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne, Vancouver and Zurich – and he has been a finalist in several competitions: Fondation Lagardère, Paris Match Emerging Talent Awards, Life Framer, Foto filmic, Lucie Foundation, Off Festival of Bratislava, in addition to winning the HiP Award in 2020 for his book Sacha. His works have been published in the Washington Post, The Guardian, National Geographic, Der Spiegel, Vanity Fair, Télérama, Grazia, Vogue, NZZ and Libération.
In 2018, he published his first book Faubourg Treme with André Frère Éditions, focused on his long-term photography project in New Orleans. This book is now sold at the Tate Modern in London, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and McNally Jackson Books in New York. That same year, he directed an internationally televised PSA for Action Against Hunger and his first short film Mineur was a finalist at the Nikon Film Festival.
In 2020, he published his new book Sacha with André Frère Éditions, which examines the consequences of climate change on the daily life of a reindeer herder in Yakutia. This book is available in France, England and the United States. In December of 2020, his new documentary film on Nagorno-Karabakh was broadcast on the French public service channel Arte. He is currently preparing a new book and a feature-length documentary on the same subject.