- Tweeter
republish
On the occasion of the Bayeux Calvados-Normandy War Correspondents Prize, the famous Iranian photographer Alfred Yaghobzadeh exhibits some of his works on the walls of the Norman city.
From our special correspondent to Bayeux,
Whether we are interested or not, we can not ignore them, they jump to the eyes and question, indignant. In large format, the photographs of Alfred Yaghobzadeh adorn the walls of a route along the river, the Aure. Each image reported by the war reporter speaks for itself, summarizes one of the conflicts that has or still bloodies the planet.
The famine in Somalia in 1992, the Yezidi calvary in Iraq in 2015, a woman mourning her future husband who died during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in 1991, the beginning of the "Arab Spring" Tahrir Square in 2011, a flogging in Pakistan in 1987, but also Paris in 2003 during protests against pensions, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Vietnam war, the Romanian revolution, etc. All these events have changed the course of the world; so many clichés that made known to the world what was happening around the planet.
A talent recognized early
Alfred Yaghobzadeh's photo testimonials have made the front page of the biggest newspapers and magazines including Time, Geo, Le Figaro, National Geographic, Newsweek, Life, El Pais, The Guardian, etc. They are distinguished from any other photo by the strength of their colors and their contrasts.
Born in 1959 in Tehran, Iran, from an Assyrian mother and an Armenian father, Alfred Yaghobzadeh is still a student of the fine arts when he photographs the Iranian revolution. But his work does not please the power. He already works for the most prestigious photo agencies, Associated Press, Gamma, Sygma.
So he leaves Iran for Lebanon first, in the early 1980s, where he is wounded by a burst of pomegranate and then taken hostage for eight weeks by Hezbollah. Then he flies to Afghanistan with the mujahideen who oppose the Soviets.
He will then be present in the first days of the Intifada in 1987, a conflict he will cover for more than ten years. " I try to portray reality as I see it. Without exaggerating emotion or aesthetics. As photographers, we are constantly learning on the ground and on ourselves. It's an endless process. Alfred Yaghobzadeh will also immortalize the Iran-Iraq war, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Grozny under fire in Chechnya, a conflict during which he will once again be seriously wounded ...
A brief return to Iran
At 47, Alfred Yaghobzadeh, who received awards and prizes in shambles (including the first World Press Prize 1986, supreme distinction in photojournalism for his reporting on the war in Lebanon), found his homeland. A return that does not last since in 2009, he is declared persona non grata after testifying during the riots surrounding the elections.
After covering some of the conflicts of the past four decades, he says, " I am not judgmental, I am like a guest, and like a mirror, I show what I see. But I see that the use of freedom is poorly understood. The oppressed who free themselves from their yoke become in turn, very quickly, oppressors. As if the human being could not leave this infernal circle. He makes the other suffer what he himself has suffered. It leaves me a little puzzled. I wonder if it was worth taking all these risks and believing in all these revolutions. "
The Mirror of the World exhibition is a powerful testimony of the last 40 years of conflict, of the cruelty that can sometimes seize the human being.
During the Romanian Revolution, here in 1990.
Anne Bernas / RFIIran-Iraq war.
Anne Bernas / RFIIS fighters imprisoned in Syria in 2014.
Anne Bernas / RFIAzerbaijan, 1991, funeral of an Armenian fedayin.
Anne Bernas / RFIStrikes and demonstrations in Paris, in 2003.
Anne Bernas / RFI
►Mirror on the world, until November 3, 2019