In pictures: Patrick Chauvel, war photographer for press freedom with RSF

War photographer Patrick Chauvel is at the center of the 69th album of the NGO Reporters Without Borders which will be released this Thursday March 3 in newsstands and bookstores.

For the 30th anniversary of the “100 photos for press freedom” collection, RSF dedicates its book to the legendary photojournalist who made the cover of the first issue in 1992, with a photo of him injured during the war in Cambodia in 1974. This new RSF portfolio is also the first photo book by the French photographer who has “shooted” 34 wars in fifty years of career.

At almost 73 years old, the French photographer is currently covering the war in Ukraine, as he has done before for countless armed conflicts all over the planet.

From Vietnam, through Ireland, the war in Chechnya, to Syria and Afghanistan,

here is an overview of the profession of war photographer.

As always, 30% of the profits from these albums will be donated to the association, so that it can continue its fight for freedom of the press.

Directed by:

• Born in 1949, in Paris, to a couple of resistance fighters from the Second World War, Patrick Chauvel started his career early, inspired by the stories of his journalist father, his uncle, the filmmaker Pierre Schoendoerffer, and their friend, the writer Joseph Kessel.

• Thirty years ago, Reporters Without Borders published the first issue of its “100 photos for press freedom” collection.

  On the cover, we could see a young war photographer, seriously injured in Cambodia during a report.

  It was Patrick Chauvel.

• At 17, Patrick Chavel left for Israel to photograph the Six Day War.

  On his return, he realizes that most of his images are missed.

  The following year, in 1968, he embarked for Vietnam where he succeeded in accompanying American reconnaissance patrols.

  Associated Press and Reuters buy his first photos.

• In 1970, the Sipa agency hired him.

  He then covered the conflict in Northern Ireland, the war of independence in Mozambique.

• He continues to travel to Vietnam and Cambodia, where the war against the Khmer Rouge is raging.

  In 1974, wounded by a mortar shell during an assault near Phnom Penh, he was forced to return to France.

  He will have seven serious injuries throughout his fifty-year career.

• In 1975, he joined the Sygma agency.

  He photographed the wars of independence in Eritrea and Angola and went to Lebanon where the civil war began.

• In 1978, during an offensive in Beirut, he was taken prisoner by the Saiqa, a Palestinian group controlled by Syria.

  Accused of espionage, he was interrogated for several days and only owed his release to the intervention of the French Embassy, ​​which provided proof of his status as a journalist.

• The end of the 1970s is particularly dense.

  He attends the Islamic revolution in Iran which provokes the departure of Shah Reza Pahlavi.

• “It is up to us, journalists, to seek the truth and to disseminate it by all means.

  Faced with the fatality of events, our judgment is put to the test and the photographer's eye only transmits what it sees: a snapshot of war.

  But as there are always several photographers, several journalists on the same conflict, this succession of testimonies will end up telling the “story-battle”, as close as possible to the truth of the facts.

  - Patrick Chauvel, quoted by RSF.

• He then points his lens to Central America to cover the revolutions.

  In 1980, in El Salvador, he was present during the assassination by the extreme right of Archbishop Oscar Romero.

  He won the Missouri Prize for his report during the funeral, where a grenade exploded in the middle of the crowd. 

• In December 1995, he was in Chechnya and covered the Russian offensive.

  His reports won the World Press and the Prix du Scoop d'Angers in 1996.

• He then decided to devote himself to documentaries and made many films such as

  War Reporters

  (1999) with Antoine Novat.

  In the early 2000s, he also practiced writing as a means of expression, and published books still devoted to the subject of reporting in conflict zones.

• In 2016-2017, he covered the battle of Mosul in Iraq with his son Antoine Chauvel, who also became a photographer.

  The Patrick-Chauvel Fund, created in 2014, brings together its archives comprising 380,000 photos.

  This collection is showcased in a permanent exhibition at the Mémorial de Caen.

  At almost 73 years old, the French photographer is currently covering the war in Ukraine.

• Slideshow

• War

• Journalism

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• Freedom of press

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• RSF