War Reporter

For thirty-five years Patrick Chauvel has been photographing the violent conflicts which have broken out across the world.

In prose that is spare and arresting, with the force and conviction of an eye-witness, Patrick Chauvel recounts these conflicts, experienced at first-hand, in his book “War Reporter”.

Successor to Kessel, Monfried or Schoendoerffer, son of the great reporter Jean-François Chauvel, grandson of ambassador Jean Chauvel, Patrick Chauvel had just turned eighteen and was without a penny in his pocket when he set off for Palestine to take his first photos. His need to get as close as possible to the action, and to bear witness through his photos, has been a dangerous passion. He ought to have died a hundred times over.

He was wounded in Iran and again in Cambodia, by an exploding shell (see photo); in Panama he was left for dead and lay on the ground four hours with a bullet in his stomach. He was taken hostage a number of times. Once he found himself facing a firing squad. He was shipwrecked with some boat people off Haïti. And yet he always set off again, alone, fascinated by this other side of looking at the world’s history – a side of constant violence and suffering, but also of friendship and solidarity.