Frédéric Lemercier

Didier Lefevre was a French photojournalist who was recruited by Medecins Sans Frontieres to accompany one of their missions into war-torn Afghanistan at the height of the Soviet-Afghan conflict. The mission had to cross into Afghanistan illegally, make their way through hostile and forbidding territory on foot and then set up treatment facilities in the most remote and rudimentary of surroundings. MSF doctors treated all comers, including combatants, and Lefevre caught it all on film.

This book is a posthumous tribute to Lefevre and the MSF team, combining the photos that he took with a graphic account of their journey. It's one of the most effective uses of the "graphic novel" format that I have read; the photos that Lefevre took at the time give a photojournalistic account of scene and character, and the drawings and text tell the story behind them, while also filling in the gaps where there were no photos.

It may just have been the setting, but the graphic parts of this book reminded me strongly of Tintin in Tibet. This may not be an accident, as the text refers to Tintin at one point.

This is an inspiring and dramatic story about some unsung heroes and the travails they endured to help others. The risks they took were potentially fatal and the end notes reinforce just how big those risks were.… (mehr)

I didn't know what to expect when I read a review of The Photographer, calling it a "photographic graphic novel." It is quite unique and simply put, amazing. In three parts, The Photographer tells the story of how the aid workers of Medecins Sans Frontieres, smuggled across the border from Pakistan into Afghanistan disguised as women in chadri, provided medical support to small communities during conflict. Didier Lefleve, a French photojournalist, traveled with the group to Zaragandara during the Afghan-Soviet War of 1986. In this district of Yaftali Sufla MSF establishes a field hospital while staffing a second one. The final part is Didier Lefleve's nearly disastrous solo departure from Afghanistan. As the tagline for MSF reads, "We go where we are needed most," The photographs and journal of Lefleve tell the entire story in intimate detail. It is a powerful print documentary.
It seems impossible for there to be humor in The Photographer, especially when you read of children with their eyes apparently glued shut and paralyzed by shrapnel, but it exists. One word: peaches. I confess. I giggled. That's all I can say about that.… (mehr)