Valentin Joseph Valette (FR, b. 1994) is a French photographer with an academic background in Sociology and Political Science, for whom the visual arts offer a valuable research instrument. His interest in the Arab and Muslim worlds, fuelled by his studies at the Institute of Political Studies of Sciences Po Aix-en-Provence, led him to join the Research Institute for Development in Tunisia (IRD). In this context, Valette has produced a research film, which is currently in editing, and a sociological survey.
Since 2023, Vallette has worked on a body of commissioned work for Médecins du Monde on the subject of health in the migration of harragas: a term referring to undocumented migrants from the Maghreb. Elsewhere, his long-term Ashes of the Arabian’s Pearl project has been shortlisted for several international prizes, including the Leica Oscar Barnack Award, the Kolga Tbilisi Award, the PhMuseum Award, Art Photo Barcelona Award and Belfast Photo Festival. In early 2024, Valette began a PhD in visual anthropology entitled The Harkis and Algeria: links, experiences, and circulations which studies the sociology of migration, memory, and belonging in France and Algeria. He is currently editing his first photographic book.
Ashes of the Arabian’s Pearl (2020–2023) examines a period of monarchical transition in the Sultanate of Oman – from the end of Sultan Qābūs’ reign to the beginning of Sultan Haitham’s reign – characterised by an urgent need for economic diversification in the face of declining oil and gas resources. This documentary project emerged from a desire to observe the dynamics of economic development, exploring the prevailing trajectory for the region’s monarchies in the reshaping of public policies to adjust to a world facing deep inequality and climate-change. The resulting series cultivates a metaphorical conversation between two distinct demographics: entrepreneurial Omani families and skilled artisans hailing largely from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. A multidisciplinary project, Ashes of the Arabian’s Pearl combines a corpus of archives, sound recordings, found objects from abandoned labour camps and over a hundred medium-format photographs.
