Patrick Chauvel, a war photographer of 40 years exhibited Guerre
Ici (War here) in Paris (until 2011) and Bayeux. His images fall into the genre
of photojournalism although the creative images are contemporary augmented
reality. These combined pairs of images (2.5 metres x 2 metres each), displayed
the original scene of war from places such as Chechyna, Beirut and Panama which
provides the context followed by an interpretation of what could happen in Paris.
Initially Chauvel’s collection contained an image of the Twin Towers and the
London bombings, but following the two actual terrorist attacks, he removed
them.
As a photojournalist, Chauvel “monitor(s) the situation and tells
a story.” (Chauvel, 2012) His images illustrate and inform the public what is
happening in the war zone. Chauval works on both sides of the war to understand
the situation to make informed images (photojournalism). In an interview with
Military History (2012), Chauvel clarifies that he works for history books and
archives as well as the news. His images carry a warning for people to remember
that peace is fragile and war can happen at any time to anyone, providing a
means to influence political parties.
It took Chauvel 10 years to be exhibited in Paris because his work
was seen as too political or disturbing. However, at the Monnaie de Paris
(2011) his work was shown with actual footage of the Liberation in Paris in
1982 from the Paris Match and Michael Wolf’s screen grabs from Google Street
View in Paris. Organisers told Chauvel, “You can show real war pictures, but
not transpose war into Paris.” (Marzolf, 2015)
By introducing war to a familiar space, the viewer is asked to
question what happened if war came to Paris? How do we see war when we are
peace? The comments posted on the internet are mixed, although I wouldn’t take
this as a real indication of how well his work was received. The websites are
mainly in French so translation was a little difficult.
Chauvel addresses the issues of image fatigue by using familiar
buildings and landscapes into which he inserts familiar scenes from wars. The
colours are fairly dark and smoky reminiscent of painted landscapes by artists
such as Turner. By showing the original war scene and then the photomontage, the
viewer sees that this is not one particular war; for example, the soldiers’
uniforms are different, but this is an augmented reality which hasn’t happened
yet. Because we are used to seeing war portrayed by reporters in action, the
viewer look more closely at the image and realise this may not necessarily be a
faraway land.
Chauvel was in Paris at the time of the attack on the Bataclan and
Café le Carillon (2015). He reacted in the same way as he would when in a war
zone, capturing the same facial expressions and emotions on people, with the
same symbols such as candles, shrouds etc. This war was different in the fact
that it was about freedom rather than religion.
Supposing that footage of a terrorist attack was inserted into a
familiar landscape, the viewer might think that the image was too realistic and
not see the point that the photographer was trying to make. I think Chauvel’s
images have been carefully chosen to fit with the situation, drama,
perspective, landscape and allows the viewer to consider war images from their
memory in order to start asking questions. There is a danger that the images
could be received as fake news but by displaying them in an exhibition with an
explanation or on building walls with the original image, the message remains
clear.
References
Military
History, (2012) Patrick
Chauvel an eye for war: the French photographer shot his first war at age 18
and has spent his life depicting the realities of combat. Military History, Nov. 2012, p.
44+.Academic OneFile [online] available at:
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=ucca&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA302463911&it=r&asid=c842ddcc3191e1d3196ed1a92f00c6f8. Accessed 21 Sept. 2017.
Marzolf, H. (2015) Attentats due Paris: Le temoignage du
photojournaliste Patrick Cheuvel. [online] Available at: http://www.telerama.fr/scenes/attentats-de-paris-le-temoignage-du-photojournaliste-patrick-chauvel,134424.php
last accessed 21/9/2017
Bibliography
Charuel, M (2011) “Fears
over the city” or peace unmasked. Valeurs. [online] Available at: https://www.valeursactuelles.com/societe/peurs-sur-la-ville-ou-la-paix-demasquee-28506
last accessed 21/9/17 last accessed 21/9/17
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