Wilfrid Estève (born Carcassonne, France in 1968) is a French photojournalist and portraitist. Since 1995, his work has appeared in publications including ELLE, Libération, Le Monde, Geo France, Marie-Claire, National Geographic France, Paris Match and VSD, and was awarded a "special mention" award in the 2005 Prix Nadar competition, along with other co-authors, for his work 'Photojournalism at the crossroads'.
Based on a philosophy of bearing witness and of inquiry, his photographic work concentrates on conflict zones and areas of breaking news, in (West Africa, Europe, and the Middle East). He is simultaneously pursuing a project of documenting immigration in France.
In 2005, he developed and directed a multidisciplinary project "Territories of fiction". In 2006 he co-founded the Hans Lucas audiovisual studio.
In 2008, he became co-director of the photo agency MYOP, and also participated in the creation of Photojournalism.fr, dedicated to news photography and photojournalism.
MYOP
Since June 2008, Wilfrid Estève has shared the management of MYOP with Guillaume Binet and Lionel Charrier. The photo agency was created in 2005 and consists of 12 independent photographers. Its originality lies in its ability to show diverse points of view.
The members of the agency come from various backgrounds, including conceptual photography, photojournalism and documentary. Anchored in the political photography of the newspaper Libération, where most of the members of the agency do freelance work, the photographers of MYOP have done assignments for the most famous French and international newspapers such as Le Monde and magazines such as Elle, Géo, Marie Claire, National Geographic, Newsweek, Paris Match and The Times.
MYOP photographers have received awards for their work, including the W. Eugene Smith grant (Alain Keler in 1997), the Agena best humanitarian reportage prize (Alexis Cordesse in 1992), the Bourse 3P de Yann Arthus Bertrand (Alain Keler in 2004), two Bourses FIACR (Oan Kim in 2008), the Prix Nadar (Wilfrid Estève in 2005), the Paris Match prize (Alain Keler in 1986), World Press Photo (Alain Keler in the nature section, 1986), World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass (Alexis Cordesse in 1993), third prize Observer Hodge Award (Alexis Cordesse in 1995), Prix des Voies Off des rencontres photographiques d'Arles (Wilfrid Estève in 2000).
M.Y.O.P stands for "Mind Your Own Photography" (although it has also been said to mean "Mes Yeux Objets Patients" ("my eyes are patient objects"), a reference to Paul Eluard. Esteve left M.Y.O.P. in 2010 after a disagreement on the organization's goals and development with the other members.
Freelens-France
Since 2004, Wilfrid Estève has led Freelens-France, formerly known as The National Association of FreeLens Journalist Reporters, Photographers and Filmmakers.
Freelens-France's objective is to assert the role and importance of photography in democratic debate. Founded in 1962, in the last five decades it has brought together some of the major figures of photojournalism, such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Raymond Depardon, Gisèle Freund, Marc Riboud, Sebastião Salgado. In earlier years, the organization was led by Robert Doisneau, Roger Pic, Patrick Bard and Lorenzo Virgili. In July 2008, FreeLens-France launched the website Photojournalisme.fr, dedicated to news photography and photojournalists.
Teaching
Since 1996, Wilfrid Estève has taught photojournalism at several well-known schools (l'École supérieure de journalisme de Lille), and specialized training centers (CFPJ or l'École des Métiers de l'Information, in Paris) as well as conducting workshops at festivals.
In 2006, he became the educational director of the photographic division of l'École des Métiers de l'Information.
In 2007, he put together the Prix Tremplin Photo, a scholarship awarded during the festival "Visa pour l'image" and dedicated to photojournalism.