Raphaël Griffon
During a trip to French Guiana, I met a gold prospector — it was a revelation. Upon returning to France, I made up my mind: I wanted to change careers and become a jeweller. At the time, I was working as an electrotechnician, but I left everything behind to return to school.
I enrolled at the Saumur Jewellery School for five years of study. After three years, with diplomas in jewellery making, stone setting, and gemmology in hand, I joined the family workshop.
Photo credit: Louis Brunet
I didn’t limit myself to the walls of the workshop. In 1998, I set out on an adventure, camera in hand, driven by a single idea: to shed light on the deep connection between material and spirit, the splendour and the darker side of gold. That same year, I released my first documentary, Gold Seekers in French Guiana, focusing on gold panners deep in the Amazon rainforest. This film became the first chapter of my journey — a journey to meet the people, the metal, and the stones that shape our world.
Two years later, I embarked on a new adventure, this time to the African continent in search of diamonds. Underground, by candlelight, men dig with the secret hope of unearthing an exceptional diamond — one that will finally bring them the prosperity they long for. From Côte d’Ivoire to Antwerp, and through Place Vendôme, this documentary retraces the extraordinary odyssey of this legendary gem, so intimately tied to the fate of those who mine and shape it.
In 2008, I travelled to Madagascar to explore the story of its sapphires. A few years earlier, an extraordinary deposit had been discovered in a peaceful village of just a hundred people: Ilakaka. In only a few months, a sapphire rush transformed the landscape. Once again, I immersed myself in the lives of the miners to capture their daily struggles, their hopes, and their unwavering faith in the future
In 2012, after more than ten years working alongside my family, my father officially passed the torch to me. As a true lover of gemstones and a passionate jeweller, I’m committed to passing on my craftsmanship through every new creation. And with many more distant destinations in my sights, I remain driven to share the stories of these precious gems with the world.