The freefight (or Mixed Martial Arts) is still banned in France. Nevertheless, like in all the European countries, the popularity of this sport explodes in the hexagon. MMA teams appear all around the country. Every weekend, Young french fighters travel hundreds of kilometers to fight legally in Belgium, Germany or in the Netherlands. All the fights are recorded on cheap digital cameras and put quickly on the internet. Most of the fighters hope to be discovered by a scout to obtain a few contracts in bigger organizations dreaming to step one day in the cage of the biggest competition the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
Thomas Vanden Driessche was born in Leuven in 1979. Holder of a master's degree in journalism and a master's degree in humanitarian management, he has been working for the United Nation Development program in Morocco, for the Belgian Red Cross and for the International Committee of the Red Cross Delegation to the European Union and the NATO. Freelance photographer working regularly for the Belgian news magazine Le Vif L'Express since 2010, Thomas joined Out Of Focus in February 2011 and his since early 2012 a nominee photograph in the french agency Picturetank.
Strongly attached to the "New Documentary Tradition", his photography is often frontal and tries to split up reality with a special emphasis on portrait.
His most recent photographic series tackle Contemporary India and its fast growing economy. Thomas is also working on a long-term project on some forms of trivialization of violence in Europe.
Rewarded with a "Parole Photographique" price in 2009 and five PX3 awards in 2010-2011, his work has been recently displayed in Paris (MK2 Library, Gare de l'Est, Galerie Dupon), in Lille (Transphotographiques 2011) and in Brussels (Palais des Beaux-Arts, The Egg). In 2011, Thomas was invited to be a jury member of the prestigious "Visa d'or Humanitaire" awards.
Thomas lives and works for the moment in Brussels
