Back Cover: For thirty-five years, Patrick Chauvel has photographed most of the conflicts that have gripped the world. Nourished by Kessel and Monfreid Schoendoerffer, great old son of the reporter Jean-Francois Chauvel, he tried to go even closer to the news. It is one of the last of a generation of reporters who lived in the Six Day War, Vietnam, Cambodia, Ireland, Iran, Lebanon, Panama, Afghanistan, Chechnya .. . He should have died a hundred times, he was wounded numerous times. In his reports, Patrick Chauvel was removed, he found himself facing a firing squad, he sank with the boat people to Haiti ...
Notice JB:
No pictures brand new boxes waiting patiently soak up the light to capture a scene of Parisian nightlife, modeling diaphanous swaying to the rhythm of flash or Insect Close-Up, welcome bullets, bombs and vests. No paparazzi in biceps trembling under the weight of their bazooka-zoom but the sound of the cocking lever and montages of film sent in envelopes.
You'll understand this book by Patrick Chauvel evidence tells a different era, a photograph "old" immortalizing conflicts around the globe. Starting his career as a photographer "war" in Vietnam, he will constantly follow all the major conflicts of the 20th century, Ireland to Panama, Iran to Chechnya.
The book is divided into chapters-conflicts, which summarize a few dozen pages of the newspaper of the author and sometimes the nature of the conflict, surrounded by a few anecdotes "field" often interesting. It is therefore entirely possible to read in any order depending on whether you preferred "IRA" or "Khmer" when your hands are trembling seize the book.
can salute the small dressing literary approach the strength of stories, each story there is an effort to maintain a certain structure, preventing the bombardment of chaotic stories.
Chauvel talks about his addiction to conflict, the adrenaline, personals, his "lucky star" and simply do what he must do, take pictures at the peril of his life. I read on various forums that many praise his ability to does not give its opinion on the conflict that crosses, others might say that his choice of photographs are nonetheless, another debate. A bit like a Mike Horn, the author is like magnetized by the conflict, measuring perfectly well aware of the danger and he wants to be a witness. So obviously we do not cut the hand "getting close to death-chance-inhuman-ego", but that's part of genre ...
The war photographer saw this golden age of pre-internet where it was sometimes the only witness to history in the making, or in the same measure, the agency Magnum could afford to send their free see results across the globe, "brings us your vision, your testimony."
Advent of digital democratization of the photographic material, everyone becomes a photographer, able to bring back the "image". The good side of things is no doubt that it is now virtually impossible to "miss" event as the eyes-everywhere cell phones are sometimes used to carry or bring real moments. The worse is that now the professional photographer is required to make "better" than the amateur, to take risks sometimes ridiculous or have an excellent finisher to give sensational in his image. While the editing is nothing new, it was already possible in the era of film development, but it is now so heavy, so systematic, it can transform the mundane into "interesting", turning the intensity of tone or sharpness of the picture above the choice of composition.
Not sure Nick Ut's Pulitzer would have been without a Photoshop expert today ...
To read or not? :
An interesting plunged into the world of journalism war, driven by a real immersion in the everyday life of the author, halfway between the adventurer and the artist.
We regret the side a bit "comprehensive" narrative, a succession of several armed conflicts throughout the century are not all on the same level of interest. It lacks the "dive" that would have made me really get into the book, this thread that would not have actually read the book over several days.
It is above all a book than a true testimony "newspaper" written in the heat of the action, not to love that shade or not.
If you like photojournalism, and you have at least a small interest in the geopolitics of the last century, when a small yes.
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