‘We wanted to be in war zones. We Were Brave As Men.’


PARIS — Visual tales of war are mostly told by men through the lens of reporters like Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson, whose photographs bring viewers face-to-face with the closeness and horrors of war.

The lesser-known perspective of women in conflict zones is the subject of a new photography exhibition that looks at 75 years of war through images captured by eight female documentary photographers.

show,”Women War PhotographersOrganized in partnership with the Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf, a German museum, ”is at the Paris Liberation Museum, the General Leclerc Museum, the Jean Moulin Museum in the 14th District until 31 December.

“We are a history museum, not an art centre,” said Sylvie Zaidman, director of the Paris museum and curator of the show. Our goal is to show the continuity of conflicts in modern history through the eyes of women, ”she said.

Through more than 80 photographs and documents, original newspapers and magazines, the exhibition features the work of well-known photographers whose names are less well known to the public than their work.

The earliest images in the show are from the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), in which Gerda Taro was killed in 1937, and the latest images are from the war in Afghanistan, depicting the ravages of war as well as ordinary life. Ms. Taro, Mr. Anchor’s professional partner and girlfriend, was among the first female photographers killed in the war.

Anne-Marie Beckmann is a curated art historian. Original (and larger) version of the exhibition at Kunstpalast in 2019he said the idea came about when the Düsseldorf museum was bought Photos of Anja NiedringhausA Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist who was killed while on duty in Afghanistan in 2014.

“We thought it important to include underrepresented female photojournalists in research, catalogues and museum exhibits,” said Ms. Beckmann, who is also a director. Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation in Frankfurt. “We selected these women for their unique visual strategies and artistic visions that go beyond just conveying information.”

Before the American photographer went to Nicaragua in 1976 Susan Meiselas He has joined the international group of freelance photographers at Magnum Photos, the Paris-based cooperative agency co-founded by Mr Capa and Mr Cartier-Bresson.

“The community around Magnum encouraged me to go out into the world with a camera,” Ms. Meiselas, now 73, said in an interview at the Magnum Gallery in Paris. “I’m not exactly a parachutist into a war, but I went to Nicaragua to witness the crushing of a popular movement.”

“What interested me was the unpredictability of history and the citizens’ reaction to the possibility of war,” he said. “I was interested in the making of history and those who made it.”

A 1979 photograph of him now known as the “Molotov Man” appears at the Paris demonstration. A shot of a Sandinista rebel preparing to launch a homemade explosive became a defining sight and Raising international awareness about the Somoza dictatorship.

“Women have never been and will never be the dominant voice in conflicts,” Meiselas said. “But they are encouraged by other women on the field.”

Christine Spengler, now 77, is an award-winning French photographer and writer who captured the war in Vietnam and Cambodia with her two contemporaries in the 1970s, at the height of the war. (She also worked in Northern Ireland, Western Sahara, Afghanistan, and Iraq.)

“I’ve never worn a helmet or a bulletproof vest,” Ms Spengler said in a phone call. “We wanted to be in combat zones with Catherine Leroy and Françoise Demulder. We were as brave as the men.”

Miss Leroy, who died in 2006it happened said She became the first female war correspondent to take part in a combat jump when she parachuted into Vietnam with the 173rd Airborne in 1967. died in 2008, gave up her modeling career in France to cover up this war. He went on to win the World Press Photo of the Year award with him. Image of a Palestinian woman pleading with a gunman in Beirut, Lebanon, 1976. The works of both women are part of the exhibition.

Ms. Spengler’s arrested photograph showing the devastation in Phnom Penh, Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge bombing in April 1975 was chosen for the exhibition’s advertising poster and catalog cover.

“On that doomsday day, it was noon when 250 rockets fell on Phnom Penh in 20 minutes,” Ms. Spengler said. “I took only one picture as the boy turned his back.”

Lee MillerA New York fashion model who died in 1977. Traveled to Europe to cover WWII for VogueIt sends footage of the liberation of the Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps.

Taking a great photo in a war zone can be a matter of reach, an advantage women have as they are perceived as less threatening than men.

“War is mostly led by men, so as a woman I can observe it without a threat,” 60-year-old Carolyn Cole said in an email. Cole, a Los Angeles Times photojournalist since 1994, has covered conflicts in Kosovo, Israel, Gaza, Sudan, Liberia, Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Sometimes I felt invisible, which only helped me gain access,” said Ms. Cole. “I have found a purpose in being the eyes of those who cannot see with their own eyes the inhumanity of war and the humanity of those caught in the crossfire.”



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