STRAIGHT OUT THE HOOD
Straight Out the Hood is at the heart of French photographer Brice Gelot’s photographic practice. It is a long-term documentary project built through immersion, proximity and relationships with the people and communities he photographs. Over the years, Gelot has worked on the project in very different urban environments, including Naples, Los Angeles, Saigon / Ho Chi Minh City and Mexico City. Each place has its own history, culture and reality, but his interest goes beyond documenting a particular city. He focuses on the people who live there, the communities they create, and the different ways they build a sense of identity and belonging.
Portraiture naturally became an important part of the project. A face, a body, a tattoo, a piece of clothing or a gesture can reveal something about an individual, but also about the environment and community around them. For Gelot, the individual is never completely separated from the place, people and culture that surround them.
His approach is rooted in long-term immersion. He does not stage the situations he photographs. Instead, he spends time in the places where he works, builds relationships and allows situations to unfold naturally. The photographs come from encounters, conversations, time spent together and moments that could never have been planned in advance.
The different parts of Straight Out the Hood were made in very different social and cultural contexts. Gelot is not trying to make them look the same or suggest that these cities share one single reality. Their differences are just as important as their similarities. What connects them are human questions that can appear anywhere: finding one's place, belonging to a group, protecting a culture, expressing who you are, or simply trying to exist within your surroundings. The word “hood” in the title is therefore not about one specific neighbourhood or one particular city. For Gelot, it describes a social and cultural environment, a place where people develop relationships, codes, identities and a sense of belonging.
The project has grown through accumulation. Every reportage adds new people, encounters and realities to an ongoing body of work. Some photographs are quiet moments, some are portraits, some come from everyday situations, while others carry a stronger sense of the environment in which they were made. Together, they form a long- term record of the people and communities Gelot has encountered. He also deliberately avoids systematically identifying the city or country alongside each photograph. This choice encourages the viewer to first look at the person, the gesture, the body, the atmosphere and the relationships between the images, before trying to place them geographically.
Straight Out the Hood is ultimately about people. It is about identity, belonging, community and the relationship between individuals and the environments they call home.
ABOUT BRICE GELOT
Brice Gelot is a French self-taught documentary photographer based in Dijon. He has been developing his photographic practice since 2004, working between documentary photography and photojournalism. His work focuses on people, communities and contemporary urban realities, with a particular interest in identity, belonging, marginality and the cultures that develop within urban environments. His long-term projects are built through immersion, proximity and relationships, combining analogue and digital photography with a strong focus on black and white.
His work has been exhibited internationally and presented at venues and events including Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Art Basel Miami and Artbox Expo Venice. He is also the recipient of international photography awards in Photojournalism.
Website www.nsd5150.com
Instagram @bricegelot