Born in 1975, Jérôme Sother is a graduate of the Ecole de Photographie at Vevey, in Switzerland. In 2006 he published his personal work in the book Crocodile Tears, with a preface by Robert Frank, with whom he has also made a short fiction film. In 2006 he was involved in the creation, in Brittany, of the Centre d’art Gwinzegal, where he is artistic director.
This Art Centre’s project encompasses a predominantly rural area and its inclusion in a network in France and Europe of institutions pursuing the same goals. It is described as a work platform for broaching the different facets of photography, in the way it is created, produced, disseminated, studied, published and collected in our contemporary society. GwinZegal’s activities are organized around supporting creative activity through the organization of artist’s residencies, exhibitions, publications, and the establishment of a demanding cultural and educational project.
A distinctive feature of GwinZegal is that it is also an independent publishing house which has been awarded several prestigious prizes (Prix du livre Aperture Paris Photo with Oliver Sieber’s Imaginary Club, Prix du livre d’auteur des rencontres d’Arles with the book Ville de Calais by Henk Wildschut, etc.). In previous years, Jérôme Sother has organized many shows, publishing projects and residencies with artists such as Jacob Holdt, Chris Killip, Malick Sidibé, Raphael Dallaporta, Roman Signer, Tom Wood, Mathieu Pernot, Pino Musi, Samuel Gratacap, Mark Neville, Madeleine de Sinéty, Bruno Serralongue, Eric Tabuchi & Nelly Monnier, etc. In 2018, he was the chief curator of the photography festival of Lianzhou in China.