Det var nært, det var sterkt, det var tragedie. Det var utstillinger i Perpignan.
På Visa pour L'image i Perpignan er målsetningen å vise at fotojournalistikken ikke er død at den lever i beste velgående. Gjennom en rekke utstillinger tar de oss gjennom nok av tragedie, men heldigvis, til tider også noe håp. Håpet og de bedre sidene ved oss mennesker forsvinner dessverre litt bort i mengden av det festivalen prioriterer som de viktige historiene. Det er fort gjort å bli alvorlig deprimert når en ser utstillinger i Perpignan. Flere ganger måtte jeg spørre meg selv hvordan dette kan inspirere. For inspirere gjør det. Svaret har jeg ikke, men mye av det som henger på veggene i Perpignan er tross alt prosjekter som viser viktigheten av å dykke dypt, av å bruke tid. Bruke god nok tid til at det faktisk gjør noe med betrakteren som ser på bildet, på prosjektet. Tid er noe som dessverre er alt for ofte nedprioritert og mangelvare for fotojournalister i dag. Heldigvis har vi i Norge (og i utlandet) en del støtteordninger, som for eksempel Fritt Ord stipender, til fotografer som ønsker å jobbe med fotodokumentariske prosjekter over tid. For i avisene og magasinene er det alt for sjeldent at de bruker penger på at en fotograf skal jobbe med ett og samme prosjekt over lang tid.
Nedenfor kan du se et lite utvalg av bilder som ble presentert på forskjellige utstillinger i Perpignan. Den engelske utstillingsbeskrivelsen er også inkludert.
War Is Personal
For most of us, war is something that happens somewhere else, to someone else. The ongoing war in Iraq is, for many, little more than a fading news story.
In his series of fifteen photographic essays entitled War Is Personal, Eugene Richards introduces us to Americans whose lives have been deeply and irrevocably impacted by the ongoing war in Iraq. We come to know, among others, a former combat medic who struggled with addiction upon returning home, a father who has just learned that his son was killed in action, a mother who spends every waking hour caring for her grievously brain-injured son, a young soldier who refused redeployment and fled to Canada, a young paraplegic shot in the spine four days after arriving in-country. These are stories, then, that begin to examine the human cost of war and its terrible consequences.
Exhibition supported by Paris Match
The Unguarded Moment
As a photographer, Steve McCurry is sustained by the rhythm and movement of light as it plays across scenes of everyday life: the routines of herding and fishing, the chanting of prayers and the hawking of wares. The sequence of images that follows is not tied to specific events or cultures, but is instead suggestive of the vast tapestry of human experience and his chance encounters with silhouette and shadow, water and light. Steve McCurry wanted to express the visceral sense of beauty and wonder that he encounters during his travels when the shock of the strange rubs against the delight of the familiar.
In Whose Name?
On September 11, 2001, Abbas was in Siberia when he saw TV reports of the Twin Towers in New York collapsing. The exhibition presents contact sheets, work prints, mock-up layouts and covers that never eventuated, forming a Making of documentary. It goes back over seven years during which Abbas traveled around Islamic countries, showing the questions that challenged the photographer: how has the Oumma (community of believers) responded to the horror of fanaticism? How have Islamism and Islamic terrorism or Jihadism grown out of Islam which is their shared religious belief?
Bloodbath in Madagascar
Walter Astrada arrived in Antananarivo in early February, in the middle of the political crisis. When the main opponent of the government, Andry Rajoelina, proclaimed himself leader of the country, President Ravalomanana responded by calling in the presidential guard that shot at demonstrators to crush the rebellion.
Walter Astrada, the only foreign photographer there at the time, reported the events and bloodshed on February 7. "I saw demonstrators being shot and falling down as they were running away in front of the presidential guards who opened fire without warning." He stayed until February 18, covering the political crisis and violence. The death toll for the three months of clashes was one hundred, including 28 shot down in cold blood by the presidential guard.
Windows of the Soul: My Journeys in the Muslim World
Alexandra Avakian is a native of Manhattan and Malibu who chose to spend two years in Gaza where she saw and suffered violence at close range.
In Somalia, where death can come at any time, she faced murderous militiamen with loaded guns. In her journeys she has captured the cold, crazed stare of a gun-toting child, the anguish of families torn apart by terrorism, the beauty of festivities and the everyday happiness of Muslims across the world. She has traveled with refugees, diplomats, guerillas, and leaders, including Yasser Arafat who referred to her as the "dictator" but granted her access for many years. She spent eight weeks with Hezbollah, and has explored countries under the most repressive regimes. The project "Windows of the Soul" spans almost two decades.
44 Days - Iran & the Remaking of the World
1979 was the year when the Shah fell and Ayatollah Khomeini took over as leader of Iran. In just forty-four days the face of Iran had changed: the country which had experienced and rejected foreign rule, which had nationalized natural resources, had lived under an enlightened monarchy, an unenlightened autocracy, and a theocracy, this land of vast wealth and extreme poverty, had, in less than two months, undergone radical change.
Thirty years later we look back, seeing the reports by David Burnett who covered violent clashes and killings, the departure of the Shah, then seen as nothing more than an absurd despot, and the spectacular rise to power of an old man adulated by the masses. These were days of great hope as the Islamic Revolution moved ahead, before enthusiastic support became radical and extreme, before visions of democracy faded and ayatollahs came to the fore.
Talibanistan
Eight years after the attack on the World Trade Center, the situation in Pakistan is explosive. Benazir Bhutto has been assassinated, Pervez Musharraf, ex-president and ally of the USA has been forced to resign, more and more bomb attacks have been occurring, Islam has turned radical, and, in the meantime, in Afghanistan, the West has become bogged down in the conflict. Pakistan is the only Islamic nation to be an atomic power. Will the country explode, causing the rest of the region to descend into chaos?
Between October 2007 and May 2009, Sarah Caron went to Pakistan five times, staying for extended periods. Her report on the Pashtun region shows the everyday life of men and women caught up in the midst of the conflict over the strategic political and economic interests of the 21st century.
Tribute
Françoise Demulder, an attractive dark-haired woman, first worked as a model before she went off with a photographer - to Vietnam. Yes, it was a love affair which set her on her professional path as a war photographer. First she spent three years covering the war in Vietnam, then went off to other trouble spots around the world - Angola, Lebanon, Cambodia, Ethiopia and more.
She lived in the Middle East where she was friends with Yasser Arafat; he could never pronounce her first name, so dubbed her "Fifi".
After a fight with cancer in 2003, she was left paraplegic. Fifi died on September 3rd last year.
The Other War
6 292. That is the number of people murdered in Guatemala in 2008. Thirteen years after the peace accords putting an end to the genocide of Maya communities, this tiny country with a population of only 13 million is now one of the most violent in the world. More than 98% of murders are never investigated, let alone brought to trial. This violence is no random occurrence, but has emerged as more and more social problems have developed, and successive governments, more interested in defending their own interests, have failed to find any adequate response. Mara gangs, made up of youths with no hope and no future, are not the cause of the problem, but rather the result, produced by a society afflicted by its own evil forces.
Wit & Gravitas
Viktor Drachev can grasp the simplest details to convey just the right feeling or touch of humor. We can readily imagine the wry smile that must have been on his face when he held up the camera, recording a picturesque glimpse of ordinary everyday life, a funny episode or a quirky moment.
Not only does he give us a fine news story, but there is also the personal touch - typically Drachev - with an original, imaginative and unexpected element.
Viktor Drachev was born in Yalta (Ukraine) in 1957 and as a child moved to Minsk in Belarus where he has lived ever since. In this grim country with limited freedom, he likes to focus on features unique to his fellow citizens, doing so with sensitivity and kindness.
Upstate Girls - What Became of Collar City
Labor historians have argued that Troy, New York, was the prototype for the industrialization of America and, as a result, one of the country's wealthiest cities during the late 1800s. The "Upstate Girls" project is an attempt to unravel the complex causes and effects of America's diehard dream. Troy, as "the most important city during the Industrial Revolution", forged the American ideology and exemplified the possibilities of the Nation's future. Ambition turned naked and the sweeping economic growth that had set the standard for developing countries became America's greatest liability.
"Upstate Girls" has been a five-year study of a part of working class America that, despite sweeping technological advances, remains essentially unchanged since the heyday of the Industrial Revolution. The project, following six young women who come of age in a service-sector economy, is an indictment of the by-products of globalization that shape the American visual and social landscape. The ongoing project aims deep into the emotional and psychological cycle of poverty as seen by women.
Only in America
François Le Diascorn has traveled the United States, from North to South and East to West.
The pictures in the exhibition are shots taken in the US rather than pictures of the US. They show us America as he sees it, a country which, even in its most conservative manifestations, has imaginative elements, has things odd and curious, while also being quite ordinary, totally crazy and ever so sensible.
Guantanamo
Part of the U.S. Navy base in southeastern Cuba was used by the Bush administration after February 2002 to detain men beyond the reach of U.S. law and the Geneva Conventions on detention and torture.
Brennan Linsley, as the AP photographer in the Caribbean, made Guantanamo a priority. He has made many trips since 2005 and, like all journalists visiting Guantanamo, had to cope with official censorship and bureaucratic hurdles.
Here is a photographic record of life in Guantanamo during the Bush years.
Somalia abandoned by all
Between 2002 and 2008, Pascal Maitre made many trips to Somalia, spending most of the time in Mogadishu and the surrounding region, plus one incursion into Somaliland. Together, these reports show the different aspects of the country: the suffering of the Somali people, the environmental damage and destruction, the problem of toxic and radioactive waste dumped off the coast by westerners, and the pirates who have been making headlines around the world. In Somalia, when it seems that things might get worse, they always do.
The Road to Nowhere
In October and November 2008, General Laurent Nkunda, the Tutsi rebel leader backed by Rwanda, took control of the main roads and towns in North Kivu in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Over 250 000 civilians fled the front line as the rebels advanced on the provincial capital, Goma, pushing government soldiers into further chaos, with looting, raping and killing. On the other side of the front, the liberation rebels killed 150 civilians in the mainly Hutu area of Kiwanja once held by the government. In North Kivu, no one is safe, and life for civilians and many soldiers is an endless journey, walking up and down the main road in search of safe haven.
So far from God, too close to the USA
This statement may seem fatalistic, but it certainly describes the position of Mexico.
Since violence first exploded with the war between the cartels, Jérôme Sessini has made two trips to Mexico, spending three months in the most violent cities - Culiacan, Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez - reporting on what the Mexicans call the "narco-insurrection".
The country seems to be caught in ever-increasing and irreversible chaos.
Promises and Lies - The human cost of the war on terror
The war in Afghanistan is spreading, and this year has forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes.
In 2001, the world promised to rebuild Afghanistan, but eight years on, ordinary Afghans are losing hope and any faith in the Afghan government or international community. Afghans have not seen any improvements in their lives since the Taliban were ousted; the introduction of so-called democracy has been nothing more than broken promises and lies.
Zalmaï, an Afghan photographer, wanted to show the vast human tragedy taking place in his country, ignored by the Western media and unnoticed by the rest of the world.
No solution can ever be found without looking at the whole picture.
På Visa pour L'image i Perpignan er målsetningen å vise at fotojournalistikken ikke er død at den lever i beste velgående. Gjennom en rekke utstillinger tar de oss gjennom nok av tragedie, men heldigvis, til tider også noe håp. Håpet og de bedre sidene ved oss mennesker forsvinner dessverre litt bort i mengden av det festivalen prioriterer som de viktige historiene. Det er fort gjort å bli alvorlig deprimert når en ser utstillinger i Perpignan. Flere ganger måtte jeg spørre meg selv hvordan dette kan inspirere. For inspirere gjør det. Svaret har jeg ikke, men mye av det som henger på veggene i Perpignan er tross alt prosjekter som viser viktigheten av å dykke dypt, av å bruke tid. Bruke god nok tid til at det faktisk gjør noe med betrakteren som ser på bildet, på prosjektet. Tid er noe som dessverre er alt for ofte nedprioritert og mangelvare for fotojournalister i dag. Heldigvis har vi i Norge (og i utlandet) en del støtteordninger, som for eksempel Fritt Ord stipender, til fotografer som ønsker å jobbe med fotodokumentariske prosjekter over tid. For i avisene og magasinene er det alt for sjeldent at de bruker penger på at en fotograf skal jobbe med ett og samme prosjekt over lang tid.
Nedenfor kan du se et lite utvalg av bilder som ble presentert på forskjellige utstillinger i Perpignan. Den engelske utstillingsbeskrivelsen er også inkludert.
Eugene Richards / Reportage by Getty Images
War Is Personal
Fra utstillingen War is Personal
Frank Hesjedal
For most of us, war is something that happens somewhere else, to someone else. The ongoing war in Iraq is, for many, little more than a fading news story.
In his series of fifteen photographic essays entitled War Is Personal, Eugene Richards introduces us to Americans whose lives have been deeply and irrevocably impacted by the ongoing war in Iraq. We come to know, among others, a former combat medic who struggled with addiction upon returning home, a father who has just learned that his son was killed in action, a mother who spends every waking hour caring for her grievously brain-injured son, a young soldier who refused redeployment and fled to Canada, a young paraplegic shot in the spine four days after arriving in-country. These are stories, then, that begin to examine the human cost of war and its terrible consequences.
Exhibition supported by Paris Match
Dedham, Massachusetts, March 23, 2008
© Eugene Richards / Reportage by Getty Images # 042
At a motel, Elizabeth Bagley embraces her brother, former Sgt. Jose Pequeno (34) of the New Hampshire National Guard. Jose, who is hospitalized at the West Roxbury VA Medical Center, was brought to the motel for a family visit at Easter. Jose, chief of police of Sugar Hill, New Hampshire, lost forty percent of his brain after a grenade exploded in his Humvee while on patrol in Ramadi, Iraq on March 1, 2006.
Mount Vernon, Ohio, March 27, 2006
© Eugene Richards / Reportage by Getty Images # 012
Mona Parsons and her son, Specialist Jeremy Hagy. Jeremy will be returning to his U.S. Army office job in Iraq after a brief R & R leave. His wife and two children have been living with his mother during his deployment.
Steve McCurry / Magnum Photos
The Unguarded Moment
As a photographer, Steve McCurry is sustained by the rhythm and movement of light as it plays across scenes of everyday life: the routines of herding and fishing, the chanting of prayers and the hawking of wares. The sequence of images that follows is not tied to specific events or cultures, but is instead suggestive of the vast tapestry of human experience and his chance encounters with silhouette and shadow, water and light. Steve McCurry wanted to express the visceral sense of beauty and wonder that he encounters during his travels when the shock of the strange rubs against the delight of the familiar.
Bamiyan, Afghanistan, 2007. Hazara schoolboys, mainly Shiites.
© Steve McCurry / Magnum Photos # 058
Old Delhi Railway Station, in an uncharacteristically quiet moment. 1983.
© Steve McCurry / Magnum Photos # 074
Abbas / Magnum Photos
In Whose Name?
On September 11, 2001, Abbas was in Siberia when he saw TV reports of the Twin Towers in New York collapsing. The exhibition presents contact sheets, work prints, mock-up layouts and covers that never eventuated, forming a Making of documentary. It goes back over seven years during which Abbas traveled around Islamic countries, showing the questions that challenged the photographer: how has the Oumma (community of believers) responded to the horror of fanaticism? How have Islamism and Islamic terrorism or Jihadism grown out of Islam which is their shared religious belief?
Iran. Tehran.
©Abbas / Magnum Photos # 031
Weekend relaxation on Mount Alborz, far from the polluted city and the strict moral codes of the Islamic Republic. Like many Iranians, both men and women, the girl on the right has had plastic surgery on her nose.
Afghanistan. Kabul. An American GI on a dawn patrol.
©Abbas / Magnum Photos # 034
Walter Astrada / Agence France-Presse
Bloodbath in Madagascar
Walter Astrada arrived in Antananarivo in early February, in the middle of the political crisis. When the main opponent of the government, Andry Rajoelina, proclaimed himself leader of the country, President Ravalomanana responded by calling in the presidential guard that shot at demonstrators to crush the rebellion.
Walter Astrada, the only foreign photographer there at the time, reported the events and bloodshed on February 7. "I saw demonstrators being shot and falling down as they were running away in front of the presidential guards who opened fire without warning." He stayed until February 18, covering the political crisis and violence. The death toll for the three months of clashes was one hundred, including 28 shot down in cold blood by the presidential guard.
© Walter Astrada / Agence France-Presse # 019
Two supporters of Mayor Andry Rajoelina shelter behind a container as police fire tear gas at the end of a rally in the main avenue. Antananarivo, February 16, 2009.
© Walter Astrada / Agence France-Presse # 033
Supporters of Antananarivo Mayor Andry Rajoelina run from tear gas after a rally where police clashed with demonstrators. February 16, 2009.
Alexandra Avakian / Contact Press Images
Windows of the Soul: My Journeys in the Muslim World
Alexandra Avakian is a native of Manhattan and Malibu who chose to spend two years in Gaza where she saw and suffered violence at close range.
In Somalia, where death can come at any time, she faced murderous militiamen with loaded guns. In her journeys she has captured the cold, crazed stare of a gun-toting child, the anguish of families torn apart by terrorism, the beauty of festivities and the everyday happiness of Muslims across the world. She has traveled with refugees, diplomats, guerillas, and leaders, including Yasser Arafat who referred to her as the "dictator" but granted her access for many years. She spent eight weeks with Hezbollah, and has explored countries under the most repressive regimes. The project "Windows of the Soul" spans almost two decades.
Tehran, June 1989.
© Alexandra Avakian / Contact Press Images # 001
After the death of Ayatollah Khomeini, children mourning outside his modest home in the suburb of Jamaran.
Bethlehem, West Bank, March 1988.
© Alexandra Avakian / Contact Press Images # 011
Palestinian protester fleeing as Israeli troops open fire.
David Burnett / Contact Press Images
44 Days - Iran & the Remaking of the World
1979 was the year when the Shah fell and Ayatollah Khomeini took over as leader of Iran. In just forty-four days the face of Iran had changed: the country which had experienced and rejected foreign rule, which had nationalized natural resources, had lived under an enlightened monarchy, an unenlightened autocracy, and a theocracy, this land of vast wealth and extreme poverty, had, in less than two months, undergone radical change.
Thirty years later we look back, seeing the reports by David Burnett who covered violent clashes and killings, the departure of the Shah, then seen as nothing more than an absurd despot, and the spectacular rise to power of an old man adulated by the masses. These were days of great hope as the Islamic Revolution moved ahead, before enthusiastic support became radical and extreme, before visions of democracy faded and ayatollahs came to the fore.
Tehran, January 16, 1979.
© David Burnett / Contact Press Images # 16
Posters of Ayatollah Khomeini appeared all over the city.
Tehran, January 31, 1979.
© David Burnett / Contact Press Images # 44
Near the university, a protester displaying the blood of the latest "martyr."
Sarah Caron / Polaris
Talibanistan
Eight years after the attack on the World Trade Center, the situation in Pakistan is explosive. Benazir Bhutto has been assassinated, Pervez Musharraf, ex-president and ally of the USA has been forced to resign, more and more bomb attacks have been occurring, Islam has turned radical, and, in the meantime, in Afghanistan, the West has become bogged down in the conflict. Pakistan is the only Islamic nation to be an atomic power. Will the country explode, causing the rest of the region to descend into chaos?
Between October 2007 and May 2009, Sarah Caron went to Pakistan five times, staying for extended periods. Her report on the Pashtun region shows the everyday life of men and women caught up in the midst of the conflict over the strategic political and economic interests of the 21st century.
© Sarah Caron / Polaris # 074
A Pakistani family in the streets of Peshawar. Every day the local community can feel the pressure increasing with stricter interpretation of Sharia law. North West Frontier Province, December 2007.
© Sarah Caron / Polaris # 093
Wedding day for Aicha (15), daughter of the Mollah at Jamia Siraj Ul Uloom madrasah. She must appear before the guests, dressed in a heavily embroidered gown, wearing golden jewelry, and stand still for hours, her gaze lowered. Her veil is slipping and she is trying to hold it in place, without moving.
Françoise Demulder
Tribute
Françoise Demulder, an attractive dark-haired woman, first worked as a model before she went off with a photographer - to Vietnam. Yes, it was a love affair which set her on her professional path as a war photographer. First she spent three years covering the war in Vietnam, then went off to other trouble spots around the world - Angola, Lebanon, Cambodia, Ethiopia and more.
She lived in the Middle East where she was friends with Yasser Arafat; he could never pronounce her first name, so dubbed her "Fifi".
After a fight with cancer in 2003, she was left paraplegic. Fifi died on September 3rd last year.
© Françoise Demulder # 001
November 1983, Lebanon. Civilians evacuating a casualty from the scene of an explosion in southern Beirut.
© Françoise Demulder # 002
Beirut, Lebanon, 1976. Karantina Massacre. World Press Photo, 1977
Miquel Dewever-Plana / Agence VU
The Other War
6 292. That is the number of people murdered in Guatemala in 2008. Thirteen years after the peace accords putting an end to the genocide of Maya communities, this tiny country with a population of only 13 million is now one of the most violent in the world. More than 98% of murders are never investigated, let alone brought to trial. This violence is no random occurrence, but has emerged as more and more social problems have developed, and successive governments, more interested in defending their own interests, have failed to find any adequate response. Mara gangs, made up of youths with no hope and no future, are not the cause of the problem, but rather the result, produced by a society afflicted by its own evil forces.
© Miquel Dewever-Plana / Agence VU # 033
Guatemala Ciudad. Santiago C. (15) was brought to the emergency room after being shot and died soon after in his fathers arms. He was said to be a Mara and was killed by a rival gang.
© Miquel Dewever-Plana / Agence VU # 040
Prison, Zone 18, Guatemala City, Sector 11. Happy (24), seen in the light well in his cell, is serving 15 years for murder.
Victor Drachev / Agence France-Presse
Wit & Gravitas
Viktor Drachev can grasp the simplest details to convey just the right feeling or touch of humor. We can readily imagine the wry smile that must have been on his face when he held up the camera, recording a picturesque glimpse of ordinary everyday life, a funny episode or a quirky moment.
Not only does he give us a fine news story, but there is also the personal touch - typically Drachev - with an original, imaginative and unexpected element.
Viktor Drachev was born in Yalta (Ukraine) in 1957 and as a child moved to Minsk in Belarus where he has lived ever since. In this grim country with limited freedom, he likes to focus on features unique to his fellow citizens, doing so with sensitivity and kindness.
Minsk, Belarus, January 24, 2005.
© Viktor Drachev / Agence France-Presse #012
Oktyabrskaya Square, Minsk, Belarus, May 11, 2008
© Viktor Drachev / Agence France-Presse #031
During an official celebration in honor of the State Flag and Emblem.
Brenda Ann Kenneally
Upstate Girls - What Became of Collar City
Labor historians have argued that Troy, New York, was the prototype for the industrialization of America and, as a result, one of the country's wealthiest cities during the late 1800s. The "Upstate Girls" project is an attempt to unravel the complex causes and effects of America's diehard dream. Troy, as "the most important city during the Industrial Revolution", forged the American ideology and exemplified the possibilities of the Nation's future. Ambition turned naked and the sweeping economic growth that had set the standard for developing countries became America's greatest liability.
"Upstate Girls" has been a five-year study of a part of working class America that, despite sweeping technological advances, remains essentially unchanged since the heyday of the Industrial Revolution. The project, following six young women who come of age in a service-sector economy, is an indictment of the by-products of globalization that shape the American visual and social landscape. The ongoing project aims deep into the emotional and psychological cycle of poverty as seen by women.
Megan, Lauries eldest daughter, gets breakfast for herself while Laurie is at work.
© Brenda Ann Kenneally # 071
Terry in her room at the YWCA in Troy, New York.
© Brenda Ann Kenneally # 080
François Le Diascorn / Rapho - Eyedea
Only in America
François Le Diascorn has traveled the United States, from North to South and East to West.
The pictures in the exhibition are shots taken in the US rather than pictures of the US. They show us America as he sees it, a country which, even in its most conservative manifestations, has imaginative elements, has things odd and curious, while also being quite ordinary, totally crazy and ever so sensible.
Man and spider-Volkswagen. Palm Springs, California, 1993.
© François Le Diascorn / Rapho Eyedea # 16
Portland, Oregon, 1973.
© François Le Diascorn / Rapho Eyedea # 32
Brennan Linsley / Associated Press
Guantanamo
Part of the U.S. Navy base in southeastern Cuba was used by the Bush administration after February 2002 to detain men beyond the reach of U.S. law and the Geneva Conventions on detention and torture.
Brennan Linsley, as the AP photographer in the Caribbean, made Guantanamo a priority. He has made many trips since 2005 and, like all journalists visiting Guantanamo, had to cope with official censorship and bureaucratic hurdles.
Here is a photographic record of life in Guantanamo during the Bush years.
A shackled detainee being escorted away after his annual Administrative Review Board hearing (ARB). According to officials, the hearing is designed to establish whether the prisoner poses a threat to the U.S. justifying continued detention. 2006.
© Brennan Linsley / AP Photo # 019
Please note that all photos were reviewed by a U.S. Department of Defense security official before they could be released. Often, the photos you see are the result of intense one-on-one debate between the photographer and the official about what may be shown to the public.
Early morning prayer at Camp 4, Guantanamo detention facility. 2008.
© Brennan Linsley / AP Photo # 053
Please note that all photos were reviewed by a U.S. Department of Defense security official before they could be released. Often, the photos you see are the result of intense one-on-one debate between the photographer and the official about what may be shown to the public.
Pascal Maitre / Cosmos for National Geographic and Geo
Somalia abandoned by all
Between 2002 and 2008, Pascal Maitre made many trips to Somalia, spending most of the time in Mogadishu and the surrounding region, plus one incursion into Somaliland. Together, these reports show the different aspects of the country: the suffering of the Somali people, the environmental damage and destruction, the problem of toxic and radioactive waste dumped off the coast by westerners, and the pirates who have been making headlines around the world. In Somalia, when it seems that things might get worse, they always do.
© Pascal Maitre / Cosmos pour Geo # 005
Shagani district where the Green Line runs through Mogadishu, dividing the city in half, has been totally destroyed and is now under the control of the warlord Muuse Suudi. No one lives here now, except for snipers.
© Pascal Maitre / Cosmos for Geo # 008
A patient severely burnt by gasoline. As there are no gas pumps, gasoline is sold in small plastic containers, causing many accidents.
Dominic Nahr / Oeil Public
The Road to Nowhere
In October and November 2008, General Laurent Nkunda, the Tutsi rebel leader backed by Rwanda, took control of the main roads and towns in North Kivu in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Over 250 000 civilians fled the front line as the rebels advanced on the provincial capital, Goma, pushing government soldiers into further chaos, with looting, raping and killing. On the other side of the front, the liberation rebels killed 150 civilians in the mainly Hutu area of Kiwanja once held by the government. In North Kivu, no one is safe, and life for civilians and many soldiers is an endless journey, walking up and down the main road in search of safe haven.
© Dominic Nahr / il Public # 003
Women flee, after collecting personal belongings during a break in fighting in Kabaya near Rumangabo. Democratic Republic of Congo, 18 October 2008.
© Dominic Nahr / il Public # 009
A group of Congolese government soldiers, in a pickup truck near Rugari, leave the frontline after successfully pushing CNDP rebels back for the day. DR Congo, October 26, 2008.
Jérôme Sessini / OEil Public for Le Monde 2 and the Figaro Magazine
So far from God, too close to the USA
This statement may seem fatalistic, but it certainly describes the position of Mexico.
Since violence first exploded with the war between the cartels, Jérôme Sessini has made two trips to Mexico, spending three months in the most violent cities - Culiacan, Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez - reporting on what the Mexicans call the "narco-insurrection".
The country seems to be caught in ever-increasing and irreversible chaos.
© Jérôme Sessini / il Public pour Le Monde 2 # 031
December 2008. A topless dancer being questioned by soldiers during a check on nightclubs in Ciudad Juarez.
© Jérôme Sessini / il Public pour le Figaro Magazine # 061
Near Culiacan, Mexico, February 26, 2009. Two thousand anti-drug soldiers work in the marijuana-growing state of Sinaloa, finding the crops and destroying them.
Zalmaï
Promises and Lies - The human cost of the war on terror
The war in Afghanistan is spreading, and this year has forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes.
In 2001, the world promised to rebuild Afghanistan, but eight years on, ordinary Afghans are losing hope and any faith in the Afghan government or international community. Afghans have not seen any improvements in their lives since the Taliban were ousted; the introduction of so-called democracy has been nothing more than broken promises and lies.
Zalmaï, an Afghan photographer, wanted to show the vast human tragedy taking place in his country, ignored by the Western media and unnoticed by the rest of the world.
No solution can ever be found without looking at the whole picture.
Suburb of Jalalabad, Afghanistan, Spring 2008.
© Zalmaï # 004
Since 2002, almost 4 million Afghans have returned home after three decades in exile, but unfortunately life is tougher here than in refugee camps in Pakistan. Every day, thousands come back to Afghanistan, but with little or no assistance, they end up on the outskirts of the big cities struggling to survive.
Kabul Afghanistan, 2008.
© Zalmaï # 069
Returnees in a refugee camp, where there are no jobs, schools, roads, clinics or hospital. The war in Afghanistan has spread, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes. Most displaced people come to Kabul.