Photo by Dominique Llorens

Some days I take photographs.

Other days I work on films.

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I was born in Montreal in 1979 and early enough looked to tell stories through lenses. I completed my BA in Communication Studies at Concordia University in 2000, specializing in Film Production.

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I then set out for Australia for a year to accomplish one of my lifelong goals in my then young life: to see the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. I then returned to North America to experience a few years of professional drought, before training in cinematography as a camera assistant on major motion picture and television sets.

When the actors and writers' strikes in 2006-2007 in the American film industry interrupted that training, it inadvertently redirected my career towards photography. I worked as a photo editor for Nicolas Ruel before definitively specializing in action photography.

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Some of my favourite career moments include: shooting Egyptian archaeology for the History Channel in 2009, almost getting killed to produce a front-page article for the National Post (Canada) on the violence in Tahrir Square during Egyptian revolution, and covering the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

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In 2014, I finally made good on my promise to direct films by making a 90-minute documentary titled Sport: Le Revers de La Médaille (The Harder They Fall) for Arte, earning a nomination with my co-director for a Laurier de l’Audiovisuel in the process. I continue to work on major sports and cultural events, namely in para (disability) sport and with the Paris Opéra Ballet. 

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I live around Paris where I regularly give photography workshops and seminars for various museums and institutions.

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The world is a very small place. I hope my work will have done its share to make it even smaller.

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Yonathan Kellerman