About me - Johan BEN AZZOUZ
44 years old, originally from Nord-Pas-de-Calais, I live in the Boulogne area and have been a photojournalist at the regional daily newspaper La Voix du Nord since 2010, working specifically across the coastal area (Boulogne, Calais, Dunkirk, etc.). I also occasionally write for the motorcycle section of the Saturday supplement La Voix Auto, as a journalist and motorcycle tester. I am self-taught: I was trained neither as a journalist nor as a photographer. I am also highly sensitive, which can sometimes be a disadvantage in everyday life, but which, in my eyes, is a real advantage in my work as a photographer: this sensitivity allows me to pay particular attention to emotions, attitudes and small details that can tell a story or give meaning to an image. This career path has earned me two Prix Varenne awards: one in 2018 and another in 2023.

How do you become a press photographer?

I first started getting into photography in 2007 because I wanted to photograph my (younger) brother's football matches, mainly so we could share those moments together. He played in one of the Flanders district's lower divisions, in the U15s at Saint-André-lez-Lille on Sunday mornings, and that is where the photography bug began...
Today, when I cover Ligue 1, Ligue 2 or France national team matches, my brother likes to remind me that it was all thanks to his passion for football! He's not wrong...
Then, through the amateur football matches I covered, particularly alongside Thierry Lamendin, a CLP photographer, and thanks to a fortunate opportunity and his help, I became a « CLP » photographer (local press correspondent) myself in 2008, working for the Roubaix/Tourcoing edition of La Voix du Nord.

The job involved photographing amateur matches (football, volleyball, handball, basketball, etc.) at weekends for the local pages: I had one foot in journalism!
The high standards and professionalism of my « boss » at the time, Didier Parsy, helped me progress quickly and taught me the fundamentals of journalism. A few months later, in 2010, luck opened another door for me with my first contract in the VDN photo department. I then moved from CLP status to journalist status when I obtained my first press card (2011), initially on fixed-term contracts (with several successive contracts in Lille, at the Grand-Place headquarters), then on a permanent contract in 2013 as a photojournalist, initially covering the Artois area and then the coast since 2017. I therefore know the region's four areas very well: the Lille metropolitan area, Artois (Lens, Arras, Douai, Béthune), South/Hainaut (Valenciennes, Cambrai, Maubeuge), and the coast (Boulogne, Calais, Dunkirk, Saint-Omer). During this period on fixed-term contracts, I learned to photograph subjects beyond sport (concerts, social issues, breaking news, courts, portraits and current affairs) and progressed with the help of my fellow photographers, particularly photo department head Patrick Delecroix, and Didier Crasnault, who mentored me more closely and helped me progress for almost a year at La Voix du Nord in Valenciennes, drawing on his 30 years of experience in photojournalism.
Today, I never tire of the opportunity to meet people from all walks of life every day and to photograph the news in the region where I was born...
During long periods of uncertainty, I was told again and again that it was impossible to make a living in this profession today, that the field was saturated, blah blah blah... It is always a little discouraging to hear that, but with a good dose of perseverance, curiosity and luck, you can still make your dreams come true. So if you also dream of doing this job, don't give up and give it a shot!