Monsanto's dozens of Superfund sites ( large contaminated sites of high priority for the US Environmental Protection Agency ) across the United States alone are affecting hundreds of communities and their environment with terrifying health and ecological consequences. Monsanto® maintains strong ties with the US government, and especially with the FDA (United States Food and Drug Administration). It is a bedfellow with many other economical and political power houses around the world. The company engages in campaigns of misinformation, the persecution of institutions and individuals, including scientists, farmers and activists that dare to disclose its crimes. Monsanto is spreading new technologies and products, while scientists, ecological institutions and human rights organizations are putting out alerts about issues like public health, food safety and ecological sustainability issues on which our future on this planet depends. This is all particularly troublesome since Monsanto is entering a new chapter of disregard for our planet through the creation and commercialization of gmos. Looking at the company’s past and present, this project aims to picture what Monsanto’s near future will look like.

Book Description 

'Monsanto: A Photographic Investigation' by Franco-Venezuelan photographer Mathieu Asselin received the Aperture Foundation First Book Award in 2017, the Dummy Book Award Kassel in 2016, and a special mention at the Luma Rencontres Dummy Book Award at the Rencontres de la Photographie, Arles. The book was also shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize in 2018. Beyond recognition for its editorial quality, the work represents an in-depth documentary process carried out over five years across Vietnam and the United States, portraying the legacy and impact of one of the world’s most controversial chemical companies.

To build this investigation, Asselin consulted hundreds of sources including press clippings, legal documents, archives, films, and personal testimonies. He focused on events and evidence that reveal the environmental and human consequences linked to Monsanto’s operations. One example is the case of Anniston, Alabama, where industrial discharges of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the 1970s led to severe contamination. Another is Agent Orange, a herbicide developed by Monsanto and used by the US military during the Vietnam War, which left lasting damage to people and ecosystems across the region.

The book also documents Monsanto’s extensive communications strategy—advertising campaigns promoting chemical progress, legal contracts binding farmers to exploitative systems, and public relations efforts that downplayed risks. Asselin’s work recognises the persistence of activists, NGOs, and communities that have challenged the company’s influence, often at great personal cost.

Artist Bio

Mathieu Asselin (France/Venezuela, born 1973) began his career working on film productions in Venezuela before developing his photographic practice in the United States. He received a Master's degree from the École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie in Arles in 2017. His work focuses on long-term investigative documentary projects, including his internationally acclaimed book 'Monsanto: A Photographic Investigation', which won the Kassel Fotobook Festival Dummy Award in 2016, the Aperture Foundation First Book Award in 2017, and was shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize in 2018.

Asselin's work has been exhibited widely, including at Les Rencontres d’Arles in France, The Photographers' Gallery in London, FOMU in Antwerp, the European Parliament in Strasbourg, and the Hasselblad Foundation in Gothenburg. Since 2018, he has served on the editorial committee of Disclose, the first NGO in France dedicated to investigative journalism. He is also a lecturer at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts KASK in Ghent, Belgium, and co-founder of DoubleDummy, a platform based in Arles that supports critical engagement with documentary photography.