Gilles Mingasson grew up in Grenoble, France, before moving to Paris to pursue photojournalism. He later moved to the United States to photograph white teenage gangs in the San Fernando Valley, and later traveled through Latin America before making Los Angeles his base.

Gilles then headed to the Soviet Union and spent six months bicycling 7,500 miles across the country with two cameras and a serious saddle rash. On the eve of profound changes few had yet to grasp, Gilles photographed ordinary people who had lived their entire lives under the Soviet state.

Today, Gilles photographs feature stories, news, social trends and environmental portraits, and works on long-term documentaries and personal projects. He also works on corporate and commercial assignments. His work has taken him all over the US, to Latin America, Asia, India, North Africa and Australia. Gilles shoots 35mm and medium format, both digitally and with film. He speaks English, Spanish and French.

In 2005, Gilles’s work on Latinos in the US won an American Photography Award, and in 2006, his pictures of an Eskimo village threatened by climate change were featured in the International Center of Photography’s second triennial show, Ecotopia.

His clients include Newsweek, Smithsonian, National Geographic, Fortune, Scholastic, Reader’s Digest, Le Nouvel Observateur, VSD, Figaro Magazine, Republica Delle Donne, Discovery Channel, VH1, AOL, HP, Global Education Fund and Unesco.

Film documentaries include The Executioners, for Capa and France2, and The NASCAR Dads for France2-Envoyé Spécial.