Benedicte Desrus is an Independent Documentary Photographer.
She is represented by Sipa Press and covers important breaking news for Reuters. She has worked throughout Europe, East Africa, the United States and Latin America.
She focuses on humanitarian and social issues around the world and currently concentrates on a long-term project documenting global obesity.
Her photography explores the lives of people ostracized by society, and the communities they form to survive and to find respect. She often spends months with her subjects. Recent stories explored the lives of elderly sex workers living in a shelter in Mexico City and the persecution of homosexuality in Uganda.
Her work appears in the world’s most prominent newspapers and magazines including The New York Times, Harper’s magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Time, Courrier International, Le Monde, The Star, Marie Claire, Internazionale, Neon and The Sunday Times Magazine among others.
Her photographs are published in the book: “40 ans de Photojournalisme : Génération Sipa” by Michel Setboun & Sylvie Dauvillier, © 2012, Éditions de La Martinière.
She has earned numerous awards and distinctions including:
2012 Coahuila Contemporary Photography Contest – Mexican Foundation for Cinema and the Arts, First Place
2012 The New York Photo Awards, Documentary category, Winner
2012 International Photography Awards, Honorable Mention
2012 NPPA’s Best of Photojournalism, Still Photography, Contemporary Issues, Honorable Mention
2012 OPEN Photo – Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), First runner up
2012 PDN Photo Annual, Winner
2012 New York Photo Festival, Invitational Winner
2012 Kuala Lumpur International Photo Awards, Portrait category, Third Prize
2011 Pride Photo Award, First prize for Documentary
2011 Humanity Photo Awards, Education, Recreation, Sports & Technology Nomination Award
2011 XIV Luis Valtueña International Humanitarian Photography, Exhibition
2011 Open Society Institute (OSI) – Moving Walls 18, Documentary Photography Exhibition
