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Photographer Gérald Bloncourt. © Eric Amiens / RFI

Gérald Bloncourt was a committed man and a passionate photographer whom exile never detached from his country, Haiti. Many personalities came this Monday, November 5 at the dome of Father-Lachaise for a last goodbye to Gerald Bloncourt, died October 29 in Paris, a few days of his 92 years.

Present at the ceremony around the family and friends of the photographer, the Portuguese Ambassador to France, Jorge Torres Pereira, Frisnel Azor, Minister Counselor in Charge of the Consulate General of Haiti in Paris, Patrick Bloche, Honorary Deputy, Deputy Mayor of Paris, Marx Bourjolly, writers like Dany Laferrière, Daniel Maximin, James Noel, Mackenzy Orcel, George Pau Langevin, former minister (member of a friendship group, with Haiti at the French National Assembly), José Pentoscrope of the Center of Information, Research and Development for Overseas Origins (CIFORDOM), Florence Alexis, daughter of Jacques Stephen Alexis, one of the fight companions of Gérald Bloncourt. They were all gathered near the coffin for a vibrant tribute.

A revolutionary

The ceremony began with a video that traces the long career of the talented photographer.

Gérald Bloncourt was born in 1926 in Bainet (Haiti), a Guadeloupian father and a French mother. In 1944 he participated in the founding of the Art Center of Haiti, for the promotion of artistic creation with the famous American watercolorist Dewitt Peters and other Haitian intellectuals. From an early age, he is revolted by the injustices suffered by Haitians. He then engages with the oppressed. With young comrades, Jacques-Stephen Alexis and Rene Depestre, they together create the review La Ruche where they denounce the policy of President Elie Lescot.

In 1946, Gérald Bloncourt was only 19 when he actively participated with his Marxist friends in the "Five Glorious". Strikes and displacements invade Haiti and lead to the fall of the Lescot regime. The army takes power. Pursued and arrested, the young revolutionary is expelled to Martinique. In Fort-de-France, he meets young anticolonialist intellectuals like Edouard Glissant, they fight together for a union of the Caribbean. With the help of Aimé Césaire, the French Minister of Overseas Marius Moutet authorizes him to come to France. He disembarks in Paris, joins the French Communist Party, becomes a photojournalist, then political manager of the photo service of the newspaper L'Humanité . The man covers many social conflicts, he travels the neighborhoods to show the difficult life of the working class and immigrants.

In 1974, the photographer covers the "Carnation Revolution" in Portugal. In his exile, he remains concerned about the situation of his country under the yoke of the dictatorship of the Duvalier father and son. The activist participates energetically in all the fights for the "decaykaj" of the regime. In 1986, after the fall of the dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier , he created the "Committee to judge Duvalier".

Gérald Bloncourt is also a painter, writer and poet. He has published novels, collections of poetry, essays. The artist has given numerous lectures on Haitian painting in France and the United States.

An imposing physique

" Gerald, it was first of all a physical that imposed. His height, his stature, his pace were those of a handsome man on whom time had no hold. His look so essential in the choice of life he had made, his smile, his laugh were those of a real seducer. His powerful voice that was declaiming, haranguing, bewitching was an essential vector of his permanent revolt and his anger so sincere face injustices, all the injustices ", testified Patrick Bloch, Deputy Mayor of Paris by looking at the red coffin ( symbolic color of the labor movement and social struggles) decorated with the works of the artist. " Our friend, our comrade is no longer and yet he is so present, as we have a part of Gerald in us which, whenever we need it, will give meaning to our human conditions, " he said. he adds.

A powerful voice

For Max Bourjolly, a former leader of the United Party of Haitian Communists (PUCH), Gerald Bloncourt is a valiant fighting companion, courageous and passionate, he has never failed in his commitments. Then another video presented Gérald Bloncourt. He himself with " his powerful voice " declaims one of his poems: I remember . He recounts some highlights of his life: " I remember that we had to forget the prisoners because they did not agree with the Duvalierist regime ". His exile: " I remember that I had to wait more than 40 years before seeing my homeland ". The Haitian poet James Noël, quarantenaire, evokes, for his part, his admiration for his elder, his inspiring.

Funeral at the Père-Lachaise Cemetery, Monday, November 5, 2018. © Eric Amiens / RFI

A humanist

A few minutes after Return to the native country , a projection brings us back to Haiti in 2016 during his last trip to his country. This document produced by his daughter shows the passion that Gerald Bloncourt had for his "beloved Haiti", his joy of being on his land, his country "Kiskeya", with his family and young people in particular. We find his enthusiasm, his charisma, his talent as an orator.

Then comes the end of the ceremony. His wife, Isabelle, thanks the friends and personalities present: " I thank all his friends who supported me in these moments of pain and who will continue to feed the joy of living of my husband after the funeral ". At the exit a glass of friendship was shared, a good punch as the humanist, Gérald Bloncourt, a benevolent and always happy man when he received at home, liked to do it.

Isabelle, Gérald Bloncourt's wife during the farewell ceremony. © Eric Amiens / RFI

distinctions

Gérald Bloncourt has received several awards for his work. In 2011, he became a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in France, in 2015 he became a Legion of Honor. In 2016, he is named Grand Cross of the Order of Infant Dom Henri, a decoration awarded by the President of the Portuguese Republic Marcelo Rebel de Sousa. The photographer leaves a background of about 200,000 shots.

The city of Fafe in Portugal pays tribute to him. He had offered photos for an immigration museum.

Bibliography

His latest book A man with black skin , a man of all seasons , prefaced by Yanick Lahens, is available in electronic version (Memory of inkwell)

Les Prolos , an album-book of 140 photographs accompanied by texts by Mehdi Lallaoui (In the name of memory), (2004)

Looking at the course of a maverick image (Bourin), (2004)

André Breton and the January 1946 Revolution in Haiti (Le Temps des Cerises), (2007)

Dialogue at the end of the waves (Memory of inkwell), (poetry, 2008)

Journal of a revolutionary (Memory of inkwell), (2013)

The angry eye A life of social photographer (Lemieux), (2016)