Between presence and truth — The manifesto of Brice Gelot
The manifesto of Brice Gelot is not presented as a theoretical text about photography, but as a declaration of position. It frames the act of photographing as an ethical and human engagement with the world, one shaped by presence, encounter, and responsibility rather than aesthetics alone. Through two complementary statements titled “My Position in the World” and “Reality Does Not Lie,” Gelot defines photography as both a social commitment and a form of resistance to disconnection and fabrication.
In the first text, photography is described as a transformative tool in a world marked by violence, inequality, and poverty, used to confront injustice and encourage empathy rather than passive observation. The photographer positions himself not as a distant witness but as an active storyteller whose role is to amplify resilience, dignity, and collective struggle through images grounded in lived reality. The streets, often associated with hardship, become spaces where strength and unity can be revealed, turning documentation into an act of advocacy.
This vision treats photography as empowerment. By highlighting grassroots initiatives, human encounters, and moments of hope, the work aims to generate awareness that leads to dialogue and, ultimately, action. Each photograph is understood not simply as representation but as participation in a broader social narrative, exposing systemic injustice while insisting on the possibility of transformation.
The second manifesto, written in response to an era saturated with synthetic imagery, shifts the focus toward the meaning of reality itself. Gelot argues that contemporary images can be technically perfect yet disconnected from lived experience, challenging photography’s historic role as proof while reaffirming its necessity as an act of witnessing. In this context, photographing the real becomes a deliberate stance against simulation, acceleration, and the erosion of tangible experience.
Central to this position is the idea that photography is fundamentally relational. A camera cannot replace the human presence required to share a moment, gain trust, or inhabit a situation. What matters is the encounter behind the image as much as the image itself. To photograph is to agree to be somewhere, to accept the time, risk, and physical experience embedded in the act of witnessing.
Gelot therefore chooses the finite over the infinite circulation of images, privileging existing light, real places, and faces shaped by time rather than constructed environments. In this approach, a photograph is less a visual product than a condensed experience, a trace of having been present in a specific moment that cannot be repeated.
Across both texts, the manifesto ultimately defines photography as a record of existence. Images are conceived as fragments of history and testimony, grounded in human experience rather than fabrication. Far from nostalgia, this insistence on reality is presented as a contemporary necessity. As long as human encounters remain irreducible to simulation, there will remain something worth photographing.
Taken together, these writings articulate a practice where photography is inseparable from ethics, presence, and lived engagement. The manifesto is less about how images are made than about why they must continue to be made, anchored in the conviction that witnessing the real is itself a meaningful act.
Available to read here : nsd5150.com/manifesto