Straight Out the Hood is an ongoing, long-term documentary project examining the hidden realities of urban life, far removed from the idealized image of the modern city.
The series moves through neglected neighborhoods, underground environments, and marginalized communities, documenting spaces shaped by poverty, violence, survival, and social fragmentation.
Developed over years of immersion and direct presence in the field, the project represents both the foundation of Brice Gelot’s photographic practice and the core of his artistic identity. Rather than observing from a distance, Gelot works from within these environments, building proximity with the people and communities he photographs in order to capture moments that exist beyond performance or stereotype.
The series explores the psychological and social landscape of the street, where gang culture, organized crime, addiction, isolation, and resilience coexist within the same fragile ecosystem. Faces emerge from darkness, bodies occupy abandoned spaces, and gestures become traces of tension and humanity. The photographs resist spectacle and instead embrace ambiguity, vulnerability, and raw emotional presence.
Through a stark visual language defined by grain, contrast, and immediacy, Straight Out the Hood functions as both documentary testimony and personal exploration. The images reveal a world often excluded from mainstream narratives, confronting viewers with uncomfortable realities while questioning the boundaries between social documentation, intimacy, and artistic interpretation.
Far from romanticizing violence or marginality, the project seeks to restore complexity and individuality to those who are frequently reduced to labels or invisibility. Each frame becomes a fragment of a larger human story, one shaped by circumstance, identity, and survival within environments marked by instability and contradiction.
At its core, Straight Out the Hood is not only a portrait of urban communities, but also a reflection on contemporary society itself: its fractures, silences, and the invisible lives existing beneath its surface.
About Brice Gelot
Brice Gelot is a French photographer and visual storyteller whose practice navigates the intersection of documentary realism, street culture, and contemporary humanist photography. Working exclusively with 35mm black-and-white film, his photographs are defined by a visceral aesthetic that embraces imperfection, tension, and emotional immediacy.
His work explores themes of identity, resilience, alienation, violence, intimacy, and survival. Through an uncompromising documentary approach, Brice Gelot captures the fragmented realities of contemporary urban life, portraying individuals and communities often excluded from dominant social narratives. His photographs reject sensationalism in favor of proximity and emotional depth, creating a visual language that oscillates between raw social testimony and poetic realism.
Rooted in the tradition of classic photojournalism while informed by contemporary street photography, his images reveal the psychological weight of everyday existence and the fragile boundary between vulnerability and resistance. The grain, contrast, and tactile quality of analog film become integral components of his visual vocabulary, reinforcing the physical and timeless nature of his work. [Official Website]
