Laureates 2025

When young photographers ask me how to begin an artistic project, I always tell them: true artistic creation must come from a place of deep personal necessity.

The recipient of the 2025 Boutographies Grand Prize embodies this principle with remarkable clarity. Confronted with a powerful and deeply personal experience, she was compelled to confront complex themes—digging deep within herself to find the strength and resilience needed to express her story and bring her vision to life. In doing so, she employs a visual language that challenges conventional photographic narratives, pushing us to reconsider our assumptions about reality and truth. Artistic creation is, at its core, a political act. It can be an act of allegiance—to a country, a family, or a loved one. But more than that, it can also be a vital act of survival—opening the door to a different way of living, and perhaps, to the possibility of joy, even in the aftermath of trauma and the upheaval of forced exile.

We are honoured to present the 2025 Boutographies Grand Prize to Sasha Velichko.

(Speech by Jean-Christophe Godet, Jury President, to the members of the 2025 Jury)

The Boutographies public has chosen Balasz Turos as the winner of its 2025 prize. The Nature of Things is a particularly sensitive series on the cycle of life, with the birth of the photographer's child and, at the same time, the illness of his own grandmother. In a way, family photography is a way of warding off death. Here, the photographer is not trying to spare us the feeling of the finiteness and brevity of life. But each image helps us to think about the value of moments, their fragility and their ineluctable succession in time. Human, plant and mineral motifs follow one another to express wear and tear, ageing, but also rebirth, life cycles and permanence beyond individual destinies. By going beyond the simple function of remembering the members of his family and moving towards the work itself, with its capacity to confront deeper truths that are more difficult to grasp, Balasz Turos's photographs place his loved ones in a wider history, and thus in a form of universality. Christian Maccotta

Over 40 years ago, Mutuelle des Motards chose to locate its head office in the Hérault region, in Montpellier and, since 2016, in Pérols.
It is also at the daily service of 2-wheeler drivers, advising and insuring them.
Beyond its core business here in Montpellier and more generally in Occitanie, it is also a committed, invested and active local economic, social and cultural player. It is in this context that it is involved with cultural players in the "cité" and that it is a patron of Les Boutographies. 

- On behalf of the Mutuelle des Motards jury, I'd like to say that this was no easy task, given the strength and quality of all the images, in terms of both form and content.

We chose an emotion, a cause and a commitment.

- While the climate situation and its impacts are often portrayed in an anxiety-inducing and guilt-inducing way, the series for which the "Prix Mutuelle des motards" photo was selected is intended to be more of a testimonial, depicting scenes of life that might be "classic" in another context. 

It's as if the situation was normal, whereas in fact it's worrying. These images are a call to action.  

- The Mutuelle des Motards 2025 prize is therefore awarded to MASOUMEH BAHRAMI.

(Award speech by Laure Gelmini for Mutuelle des Motards)

Masoumeh Bahrami's photography, with her series The Tears of Motherland, touched me deeply. Through a personal story, she paints a poignant picture of ecological issues in Iran. These issues are particularly close to my heart, and resonate with the commitments I've made within our laboratory: to reject no chemical waste in our silver processes, to favor media made from recycled materials wherever possible, and to make maximum use of recycling in our digital printing activity.

(Award speech by Alain Cauquil for Laboratoire Photon)

At the editorial office, we've decided to award our "coup de coeur" prize to the work of Alex Bex. This 31-year-old Franco-Texan is working on a long-term project on the representation of masculinity among Texas cowboys, a series we saw at Boutographies, and which is still in progress. At this stage, it already presents extremely powerful images, whether in portraits or situations captured in slow motion. This style of photography is at the service of an original subject. It's in line with the contemporary themes that photographers are currently tackling.

(Award speech by Thibaut Godet for Réponses photo)

At a time when Trump and his MAGA supporters are virile and sexist, this work on masculinity and the figure of the cowboy seemed particularly important to us.
Gender issues are a subject close to our hearts at Les Jours.
The work on light and portraits is very beautiful. And the editing is particularly serious and intelligent.

(Award speech by Simon Lambert for Les Jours)

We're delighted to have chosen Jade Joannès for the second edition of The Eyes' mentorship program as part of the Boutographies festival. We were seduced by the documentary work developed by this young photographer, focused on the links between individuals and spaces, exploring with tenderness and strength at the same time the notions of identity, memory and representation. By supporting this approach, we are encouraging a photographer deeply rooted in reality, who questions the relationships between territories, identities and collective memories. We look forward to talking with her!

(Award speech by Vincent Marcilhacy for The Eyes)

The Youth Jury organized by Pass Culture visited the eight exhibitions during a dedicated tour. The fifteen young people present then deliberated and debated. They chose Balazs Turos as the winner of their 2025 prize. They were particularly moved by his series The Nature of Things, which takes a sensitive look at the cycle of life, from the birth of the photographer's child to the illness of his own grandmother. It's an intimate story, illustrated by powerful images, sometimes gentle, sometimes tragic, that touches each of us in a special way, and has a universal appeal. The cycles of human life are placed within the great uninterrupted cycles of nature, whether plant or geological, and gestures of care unite successive generations. The whole soothes the sense of transience in human life, and at the same time underlines the importance of caring for others.

(Interview by Christian Maccotta for Pass Culture)