I was born in France early in 1979, from a Spanish mother and a French father. I lived in Paris until the day I decided to leave the old continent to join my father in the United States. I have been living in the New York, since July 1993, and went to the French high school and then at University of Chicago, which I graduated from in June 2003 with a medieval history major.

My photography career starting oddly in 1996 when I decided to photograph ancient Roman sites all around the Mediterranean Sea, and traveled every summer and winter to various sites in Europe, North Africa and the mid East. When I went to college in the fall of 1998, and my swimming career went to hell, I decided to go further to perfect this craft by shooting for various Chicago newspapers, including the UofC Maroon, the Reader and Street Wise. Finding this work boring and below my expectations, I decided to push myself to more risky endeavors. I started photographing international events in the summer 2000 in Panama (the country where I picked up surfing) shooting civil unrest. From that period on, I have been more and more drawn into this career, covering stories, in the US, Western Europe, Chiapas, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Congo, Ivory Coast, Syria, Lebanon, Georgia, Nepal, and Ethiopia.

In the past three years I have been concentrating on conflict around the world, more specifically on the South Caucasus and East Africa. However, my first experience as a photojournalist was in the South Caucasus in April 2001 when I worked on my first major photo essay region for the first. I traveled to Armenia and worked on a project about Ex. Soviet heavy industrial cities in Armenia, and the consequences on the locals who once lived with the rhythm of these machines. I returned to the Caucasus in the spring 2004 with a more concrete work in mind. I wanted to photograph the ethnic problems in the South Caucasus, through war and various social tensions. I covered the war in Karabakh for one month in may 2004, while photographing the life of locals Karabastis. I covered the war with the French Foreign legion in the Ivory Coast. I returned to the Caucasus in September 2004, but this time in Georgia to cover the war in South Ossetia. After seen some intense firefights, I decided to enter the Pankisi gorge to live and photograph Chechen refugees living there. In February/March 2005 I covered the war in Nepal, working with the Maoist rebels, then with the Royal Nepalese army. I worked there again in the fall 2005 covering the war with the Maoist, as well as working on a human trafficking story. After covering the war in Congo and Ivory Coast in 2004, I decided it was time again to concentrate on one specific country. Ethiopia, with its recurrent military unrest was my next choice. I managed to link up with Oromo rebels in early 2006 for one month, and with the ONLF in October of the same year. I spend the entire 2007-year working on wrapping up on my book project on WWII veterans from around the world. In 2008 I worked in Beijing covering the life and hardship of Chinese migrant workers, for 5 weeks. In August I covered the war in Georgia on the Russian side.  Again in 2009, I covered the war in Somalia, and in 2010 the war in Afghanistan alongside the French Foreign Legion, where I saw heavy fighting.

I today work for both Getty images, and thereprotage.com since 2004, as a contributor. I also contributed to Glamour in France and Spain, American Photo, Aftenposten (in Norway), the Traveler UK, Need magazine (US), Africa International, le Figaro Madame, Times (Europe), as well as a dozen Western European magazines, up to today.

I won two fourth places for Black and White in the University of Chicago/ National Geographic magazine photo contest; and best war photo of the year in the American Photo magazine, November 2004 issue. I am today a staff photographer for Polaris Images, based in NYC.

I am currently in negotiations with Verve editions to publish a book on a project I have been working on for 5 years: a medium format portrait of WWII veterans form all over the world. I have shoot 212 veterans, from 61 nationalities, from both sides.

Jonathan Alpeyrie peloponnessian@hotmail.com

Canvas print size:

Value: $500