Olivier Jobard has been a member of Agence M.Y.O.P. since 2012.
Previously he was a member of the SIPA Press agency for 20 years.
He has reported from many theaters of war: Croatia, Bosnia, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Colombia, Iraq etc.
In 2000 he visited the Sangatte refugee camp. Here, he met Afghans, Chechens, Iraqis, Bosnians, Kosovars and Somalis, all of whom had been cast into exile because of wars at home. These were the same countries to which Jobard had voluntarily travelled to cover news stories. He had passed by these people without seeing them, concentrating only on the event.
Taking account of this, his photographic approach evolved towards a long-term projects. He met Kingsley in Cameroon in 2004 and documented his clandestine journey from Africa to France. An eponymous book was published by Marval Publishing in 2006.
Then for two years Olivier Jobard focused his work on "Fortress Europe": from Ukraine to Poland, from Turkey to Greece, from Syria to the island of Lampedusa, he has documented the many clandestine migration routes leading to Europe’s borders. From this project a traveling exhibition "Exile, Exit?" was conceived.
In 2015, he published Kotchok (Robert Laffont) in collaboration with the journalist Claire Billet. For this project, the pair integrated a group of illegal migrants from Afghanistan and shared their journey to France. This is a unique book, and documentary film, tracing the entire route of the migrants and their sparse everyday life.
Having documented immigration experiences for over ten years, today it is the integration of immigrants into their host countries that is the focus of his photographic work.
Olivier Jobard is the laureate of numerous awards, including the Visa d'Or News in 2004 and the Visa d'Or Magazine in 2011, the World Press Photo in 2005, the Emmy Award for best documentary for Kingsley's Crossing in 2007, and the ESJ Lille Prize in 2013.
His work has been exhibited in France (Visa pour l'Image in Perpignan, Rencontres de la Photographie in Arles, BNF François Mitterand, Festival des Etonnants Voyageurs in Saint-Malo, Metz Arsenal) and abroad (Open Society Foundation in New York, Contemporary Cultural Center of Barcelona, Nederlands Fotomuseum of Rotterdam).
