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22/10/2015
Gilles Caron, photojournalist, died in 1970, aged 30...
Historical background. By Maya Ahaddad
The Cold War opposed the United States and the USSR. The USA wanted to
stop the expansion of communism, that is why they invented containment which is
a policy against communism. As a consequence, it lead the US to invade Vietnam
in order to stop communism. It caused a violent war that lasted nineteen years
(from 1955 to 1975) in which the Vietnamese were massacred. Among several
important battles, the battle of Dak To from November to December 1967 was one
of the biggest: it was horrific for American soldiers as well as for the Vietnamese
soldiers. In the end, the USA lost the war and Vietnam was freed thanks to the
help of the USSR and China.
The 60s were a period of decolonisation. Many colonised countries became
free. After the Second World War, the two biggest empires (England and France)
lost their notoriety and their economies were shattered which made them no
longer frightening for their colonies. That is why people from colonised
countries were able to grab their freedom. However, this period created
consequences such as war and civil conflicts. The decolonisation of Nigeria,
for example, was one of the most pacific, though the long term impact was
serious. For instance, it created a war within Nigerian, that in Biafra. The
south east of Nigeria wanted to become independent. Today it is called the Republic
of Biafra. Thanks to the work of Gilles Carron, who took pictures during the
war in Biafra, we were and are today able to see how horrible it was. His
photos mostly represented starvation which was the first cause of death during
this period. Indeed, at least a million people died from it.
May 1968 was a period of strikes and civil unrest. In Paris, many young
students rebelled against the government, asking for their rights. They
organised many demonstrations. During these protests, students were beaten by
the riot police. They were very violent demonstrations; many people got hurt. The
photos of Gilles Carron show us the situation. In one of the photos, we see a well-dressed
young woman lying on the ground while a policeman hits her violently with a long
truncheon. We understand that he is responsible for the brutality of the event.
The fact that it is a woman emphasises the omnipresent and unacceptable violence
during these events.
In the six day war, Israel fought Egypt, Jordan and Syria. It began on
Monday 6th June and ended on Saturday 10th 1967. It was caused by the blockade
that Egypt imposed on Israel, preventing their ships sailing on the Straits of Tiran.
Israel won, and the Arab army was defeated on the evening of the sixth day. The
Hebrew state’s army went all the way to the Suez Canal and also took Gaza from
Egypt. The photojournalist Gilles Carron, with a picture representing three
proud Israeli soldiers in the desert, shows us that Israel actually won nothing
because they conquered a desert…
Northern Ireland was in the midst of a civil war in 1969. It was
horrific for the people of Northern Ireland; many people died. This war was due
to a political, social and religious conflict. Indeed, Protestants from Ulster
fought against Catholics from Belfast. In August 1969, the British army
intervened and was very violent toward the Catholics.
What is photojournalism? By Sabrina Ahaddad & Ines Benchaffi
Journalism is to inform, to explain and to make people aware, understand and react towards different events. Journalists, through their articles, try to convince people through their narrative. Sometimes they manipulate people's opinion.
Photojournalism is a form of journalism. It consists of pictures which are used to tell a story so people, instead of reading an article, can understand a situation. These pictures only have a caption to make people understand the context. It makes people want to react, to have their own point of view.
Pictures were published in famous and serious newspapers and magazines such as LIFE, TIME (USA), and Paris Match (France). Normal newspapers had very little illustration (like Le Monde).
The golden age of photojournalism was between the 1930s and the 1960s because of the development of new smaller cameras. It was so popular in those days because people were finally able to see what they were hearing on the radio. It had an immediacy which people enjoyed. People weren't all well educated so these images could bring them the knowledge of what was happening in the world. But in the 70s its popularity started to wane because of television.
A photojournalist is a reporter who instead of writing articles at his office, goes in the field to take pictures of what is happening all around the world in the same way a reporter does when he wants to write his articles. He chooses the photographs that are most likely to tell a story and to make people understand the situation.
The photojournalist must be curious, brave, passionate, willing to take risks, he is capable of almost everything to get his scoop... He kind of lives for his job even though it can be really dangerous. He brings a personal aspect to the event, that's why we can say that he is able to change people's point of view thanks to his photographs. He sells his work to newspapers and magazines so that the world can see them and it sometimes makes him famous.
A photojournalist tells a story, to show history in the making, and denounces situations and describes the different places of the several events trough pictures.
The golden age of photojournalism was between the 1930s and the 1960s because of the development of new smaller cameras. It was so popular in those days because people were finally able to see what they were hearing on the radio. It had an immediacy which people enjoyed. People weren't all well educated so these images could bring them the knowledge of what was happening in the world. But in the 70s its popularity started to wane because of television.
A photojournalist is a reporter who instead of writing articles at his office, goes in the field to take pictures of what is happening all around the world in the same way a reporter does when he wants to write his articles. He chooses the photographs that are most likely to tell a story and to make people understand the situation.
The photojournalist must be curious, brave, passionate, willing to take risks, he is capable of almost everything to get his scoop... He kind of lives for his job even though it can be really dangerous. He brings a personal aspect to the event, that's why we can say that he is able to change people's point of view thanks to his photographs. He sells his work to newspapers and magazines so that the world can see them and it sometimes makes him famous.
A photojournalist tells a story, to show history in the making, and denounces situations and describes the different places of the several events trough pictures.
Who was Gilles Caron?
The French photojournalist Gilles Caron was born in 1939 in Neuilly-Sur-Seine. His parents were divorced when he was 7 and then he went into a boarding school for 5 years. After that, he studied journalism. He always knew that he wanted to be a journalist. In 1959, he got his parachutist’s diploma. All of these events forged his attitude; that's why he became a photojournalist, reporting on world conflicts. He used his pictures to show the horrors of the war for instance starvation, destitute people, or soldiers’ lives. He wanted people to know what was happening to other people. These pictures moved people, sometimes pushed them to take part in popular uprisings (like in May ‘8 in Paris). Through his pictures, Caron shows us that he was fascinated by violence. His project was to tell the news differently; he put his own emotions and his own opinions about the humanity in his photos. But he watched and did not intervene. At the beginning, he considered himself something of a hero;his pictures of the six-day war are almost patriotic. He was on the side of the victors. Caron once said that he wanted to live fast and die young (an attitude common among the young of his generation) and that, in his personal life, he always “messed things up”... This gives us a clue as to his state of mind and surely explains in part his choice of career… Gilles died, after a very short career, aged 30, during a mission in Cambodia. Several of his photos have become iconic.
Other famous photojournalists. By Margaux Cellerier
Robert Capa was born in 1913 and died in 1954. He covered the biggest conflicts of his period and is one of founders of the photographers’ cooperative Magnum. His most famous photos were taken during the Spanish Civil War. He also took photos of the D-day landings during WW2.
Kevin Carter took a photo that became iconic of a starving girl with a vulture standing nearby. It showed the famine in Sudan in the early 1990s. He received the Pulitzer prize for it. This photo provoked debate about the famine but also about the role of the photographer because people thought that he had done nothing to help the girl.
Comments on a few photos of the exhibition on Gilles Caron's work held in Clermont-Ferrand, France, from October 2015 to January 2016.
This picture was taken during the Biafra war in Nigeria which lasted 3 years (1967 to 1970). This war started after the pacific decolonization of the country, it belonged to the British. The south east of Nigeria wanted its independence.
It shows a religious funeral of a child. The body is covered and it is held by a religious man. There are two men and a White priest in the center of the picture. It is very moving because we see that the victims can be anyone and the result of war is suffering and death. It is different from other pictures in this exhibition because in the other photographs the children are in a real bad condition, very thin due to the starvation but here the child is dead. The body is tiny. There is nothing people can do about it now he is gone... Despite this terrible thing, the picture is pretty, it is well taken. However the priest in the middle who has his head down is the main focus on the picture because he is in the center and the body is held by a black man on the left. Thus, it also denounces the horrible side of war and its victims, an indirect result of colonization (symbolized by the White man?). War is bad, useless and mean. By Sabrina Ahaddad
Caron took
this photograph in 1968 during the Biafra civil war in Nigeria. This picture
shows a father carrying his child. The father has a look of hopelessness. Their
bodies are so skinny that we can see their bones. It proves that because of
this civil war they are suffering from starvation. The child is totally naked
he has an empty look; without food he will not survive.This picture is about
disillusion. It make us feel a lot of pity for them. It denounces the cruel and
inhuman impact of the war. By Ines Ben-Chaffi
This black and white photo by Gilles Caron was taken in a Paris street at night during the student revolt against the de Gaulle government in May 1968. A terrified young man is running away from a policeman in full riot gear who is about to catch up and hit his victim very hard with a long wooden truncheon. The well-dressed student is falling down onto the wet pavement. This dramatic photo denounces the police violence and the abuse by the State of its power. By Geoffrey Brun
This black and white photo by Gilles Caron was taken in a Paris street at night during the student revolt against the de Gaulle government in May 1968. A terrified young man is running away from a policeman in full riot gear who is about to catch up and hit his victim very hard with a long wooden truncheon. The well-dressed student is falling down onto the wet pavement. This dramatic photo denounces the police violence and the abuse by the State of its power. By Geoffrey Brun
16/04/2015
15/11/2014
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