Pascal Maitre Simply Human

PRESS KIT Le Photojournalisme Pascal Maitre Simply Human Photography Exhibition July 7 to October 11, 2018 Open everyday, 10am to 7pm © Pascal Maitre / Cosmos Niger 2007. Migrants traveling by truck across the Tenere Desert. Thousands of illegal migrants, mostly from Nigeria, Ghana and Mali, cross the desert in the hope of finding work in Libya and the European Union. Le Photojournalisme EDITORIAL PASCAL MAITRE SIMPLY HUMAN His father was a blacksmith from the Berry region This is his ritual. Pascal and his wife have two in central France, and his uncle was an American children, and it is astonishing to see him, for soldier. From his father he learned the satisfaction example in the snow in a far-flung part of Karelia of a job well done, and his uncle gave him a in north-western Russia, there on his cellphone, Rolleiflex 4x4. Things really took shape at senior getting his son to recite his multiplication tables. high school with the photo club. By 1977, while “Basically I feel I’m a storyteller.” He could aspire studying to become a psychologist and intending to be an artist, waxing lyrical about his expert use to serve working class communities, he had of light, the unique eye of the artist, going on for his first photography exhibition, at Châteauroux hours expatiating on theoretical approaches to in central France, presenting pictures of local the color red, but Pascal Maitre’s main approach gypsies. That was two years after the publication is informative and instructive, showing stories. His of Josef Koudelka’s book on gypsies (originally pictures speak. They explain. They defy. called Gypsies, the End of the Journey) which, A key figure and influence was the Swiss traveler as Pascal Maitre recalls, had fascinated him. and writer Nicolas Bouvier, author of L’Usage du He acknowledges the importance of only two monde [The Way of the World]. other masters: Henri Cartier-Bresson for the art What Pascal wants is time. And he takes his time. of composition and the “decisive moment,” and This is not a particularly fashionable approach William Albert Allard for his genius as a color these days. He loves the intensely slow pace of the photographer. novels of Joseph Conrad, another favorite author Forty years later, with hundreds of reports, plus so and reference. many exhibitions, books and awards, Pascal Maitre Time is needed and the hours must be allowed to is still traveling the world. Now for the first time in go by at their own pace, whether it be for convoys his life, and here for the Arche du photojournalisme, of rusty barges being driven along by the powerful he reviews his long career with a selection of Congo River, or women clad in black in Iran under 150 photos, arranged in ten geographical zones, the mullahs, or the portrait of a Peul miner, his including six in Africa, his second homeland. face sculpted by gold dust, gold that will never be What is behind such an endless quest for travel his, or the blue gloom for a man shooting pool in and pictures? “Well, you’ve got to live, haven’t you?” a deserted town in Honduras. The photographer Photojournalism is going through tough times, so extracts the truth of a single point in time, captures more spectacular efforts are needed. What is he its appeal, albeit sometimes the appeal of evil, really after? Adrenalin rushes? In his early years taking a simple situation in life up to a universal he covered a number of conflicts (e.g. the Soviet level of human existence. Yes, time is needed. invasion of Afghanistan and guerrilla warfare in Time is needed for the art of being surprised by Colombia), and even today he is often in areas with things real. The art of standing back. It is indeed great potential for danger, such as, quite recently, an art. And a commitment. Playing rugby, Pascal Somalia and Mali. Yet he does not see himself as was on the wing, a blindside flanker. “It’s a position a “war reporter.” Is it just a taste for adventure? where you’re free, and where you never give up.” There is obviously a genetic disposition to travel, to discover things, but this is not the romantic ideal of the rugged adventurer. It is simply a grasp of what it means to work “in the field.” In the evening, no matter where he is, no matter how rough it is, Pascal manages to find some murky water to have Pierre Delannoy, a wash, and puts on a nicely ironed shirt. journalist Le Photojournalisme AFGHANISTAN, THE LAND OF INSOLENCE My generation of reporters started their career On one incredible trip, I was probably one of moving around secretly with the Mujahideen the last people ever to take photographs of the fighting Soviet forces that had invaded their great Buddhas of Bamiyan. country. And like most of my colleagues, I was And sadly I saw the advent of the Taliban as totally fascinated by Afghanistan, and always they moved into Kabul. will be. Over the last forty years, Afghanistan seems We were dressed as Afghans and traveled to have experienced every form of disaster by night, walking through the Hindu Kush and hardship possible. Two events stand mountains, going on for hours without out in this recent history: the Soviet forces speaking, covering hundreds of kilometers seizing control on December 27, 1979, and to reach areas where the Mujahideen were the aftermath of September 11, 2001, with the standing up to the great Soviet Army. United States launching the “War on Terror” The experience was unforgettable: the targeting Osama bin Laden and Islamist physical effort, sharing the life of the fighters, terrorists, and carpet bombing the country. the sheer scale of the country, the harsh life On my last trip there, in 2009, I could not in rural areas, and the injustice and cruelty recognize the famous “kingdom of insolence.” suffered by the women. I saw the proud Afghan people dominated by I have been back dozens of times. I met the force of invaders, by foreign armed forces. Ahmad Shah Massoud on different occasions, And why? While many foreign troops have once over a period of a few weeks. left the country, there is even more chaos and violence than there was before. TRAVELING IN SIBERIA In the winter of 2003-2004, I spent four months in Siberia, from November to late February, going from Yekaterinburg to Vladivostok via Norilsk, by car, truck, train, plane and bus. It was mid-winter, when the temperature gets down to -50°C (-50°F). At markets, the milk forms solid blocks (no need for special packaging), and the fish, frozen stiff, stand vertically like spikes. Strangely enough, there were many things in Siberia that reminded me of Africa: the wide stretches of land, a similar philosophy of life. I was particularly struck by the city of Norilsk, above the arctic circle, in the middle of the tundra. It is the world’s northernmost city, with a population of 170,000 enduring extreme weather conditions: the winter lasts for nine months, with 280 days of snow and 150 days of blizzard. This is the city of Norilsk Nickel, the global leader for nickel and palladium production. Norilsk is also the most polluted city in the Russian Federation, with heavy metals and sulfur dioxide jeopardizing the health of the local population. The city does not like to be reminded of its early history, of the time starting in 1935 when it was built by prisoners from Gulag labor camps: approximately half a million prisoners forced to work there over a period of twenty years. Le Photojournalisme ELN, THE LAST GUERRILLA GROUP IN COLOMBIA In 1991, I spent six weeks with the ELN Life was rough and tough for these young (National Liberation Army of Colombia), a people who were on the move all the time, guerrilla group founded in 1964 and adopting in a hostile jungle environment, preparing the liberation theology and social reform for attacks, and talking to local communities advocated by some of the Catholic clergy. to explain how they were being exploited by At the time, ELN troops numbered 6000, landowners and their henchmen. We walked as many as the FARC; (the two groups later non-stop. Whenever the regular army heard joined forces as the Simon Bolivar Guerrilla that ELN troops were in the area, they set up Coordinating Group). The ELN often targeted ambushes, but they failed as ELN informers natural resources, mainly oil, and carried out had infiltrated the armed forces and would tip more than 600 attacks on oil facilities. off the ELN commanders. Today the ELN is the last active rebel group in Then, when you have to leave people who have Colombia, with 1,500 troops backed by some shared so much with you, sharing their lives, 7000 civilian militia. their combat, and their doubts, it is always a In the 1990s, the media paid little attention to difficult and emotional moment as you turn guerrilla groups in Colombia. These shots are away. First you have to worry about your from a report I did for GEO magazine Germany, own security, to get away from life in hiding, and the assignment was quite an adventure. but even more importantly, you have to leave After a week in a tiny hotel room in Medellin, behind all these people in their harsh world then some time spent hiding in the garage while you go back to a normal life. Even a long of a private house, I had to walk for days and time later, in the evening, I would wonder what nights before we finally reached an ELN camp happened to them, what their life was like in the middle of the jungle, somewhere around afterwards.

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