Travel Journal

From Reims in France, Jonathan Fontaine has been crisscrossing the globe as a documentary photographer since 2013. His lens focuses on societies in transition throughout the world. Whether documenting ecological disasters, refugee movements, overtourism, or the changing lives of indigenous and nomadic peoples – his mission remains constant: to restore dignity to those pushed to the margins by our globalized world.

*Member of* ***Hans Lucas*** *agency*

His early work focuses on the plight of Rohingya refugees in Myanmar (2013-2014), considered one of the most persecuted Muslim minorities in the world. After joining SIPA agency, he covered Southeast Asia for the international press, working in Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Bangladesh, the Philippines, and India.

*Rohingya refugees, Myanmar 2013*

Between 2016 and 2018, he was based in Ethiopia to document the devastating effects of drought on nomadic peoples in the Horn of Africa.

*BORANA TRIBE, Ethiopia 2017*

Between 2019 and 2020, he documented the health conditions of the Wichi and Ayoreo peoples facing soybean plantations and deforestation in the Gran Chaco region of Argentina and Paraguay.

*Paraguay, Gran Chaco 2020*

In 2021, he traveled through Egypt and Sudan, focusing on the Nile and its climate and geopolitical challenges in the region.

*Egypt, Aswan - 2021*

In 2022, the Horn of Africa experienced its longest and most intense period of drought due to climate change. After spending several months living in the Somali region of Ethiopia, his reportage on the end of nomadism was recognized by the World Press Photo.

Honorable Mention world press 2023

Improvised camping with the NGO team, Somali Region - Ethiopia

In 2023, he created an immersive photographic essay in a former Soviet factory at the heart of a small Armenian village that had become a refuge for exiled Russian and Iranian artists. This work offers a perspective on the social and cultural transformation of a post-Soviet territory located in a region with complex geopolitical stakes.

Community of artists in front of the Abastan factory, Tumanyan - Armenia

In 2024, he documented the devastating consequences of mass tourism in Bali: pollution, transformation of rice fields into villas, gentrification, and economic neo-colonialism disguised under the "paradise" of Baliland driven by social media.

River of waste flowing toward the beach where tourists lounge, Bali - Indonesia

Cycle-documentary, a new photographic approach to better understand territories. Recently, Jonathan has been exploring a more climate-conscious model where bicycle exploration of a region or country brings greater proximity for meeting its inhabitants. Immersion through bivouacking allows for a better understanding and photography of the social geography. This working method is in an experimental phase, primarily in France.