As immersive as it is intense, The Photographer is in line with other classic graphic novels such as Maus (1986-91), Palestine (1993-95), and Persepolis (2000-03).

Guibert shows the conflict through the lens of a vulnerable photographer, for whom danger is omnipresent and whose fear and tension are highly perceptible. The reader witnesses the atrocity engendered by war as Lefèvre walks from village to village, observing and recording the distress of innocents. In this engaging graphic novel, war is not glamorous. MSF was there to rescue the helpless and heal innocent citizens who were injured.

Following the Soviet invasion of 1979, countless Afghans suffered from the ravaging conflict. The book tells the true story of photojournalist Didier Lefèvre whose job was to cover a three-month MSF ( Doctors without Borders) mission in the summer of 1986. Fournot organized the medical mission and hired Lefevre to join her staff of doctors and nurses.© Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefèvre, Frédérique Lemercier, Le Photographe (France: Dupuis, 2010).įrom the vibrant city of Peshawar to the remote town of Zaragandara in Afghanistan, The Photographer transports the reader into war zones where fascination and indignation mingle together. One of the people pictured in The Photographer is Doctors Without Borders staffer Juliette Fournot. The book captures the toll of war in small moments that glorify no one images show interactions between children and parents, soldiers and civilians, doctors and patients. Guibert collaborated with Lefevre to produce The Photographer: Into War-Torn Afghanistan With Doctors Without Borders, an unusual graphic novel that combines Lefevre's photos and Guibert's illustrations with a comic-book style narrative.Īs Guibert tells host Guy Raz, Lefevre's black-and-white photographs form 'the spine of the story,' while his simple color illustrations capture the landscape, people and emotion of the journey. And they might have remained there had it not been for graphic novelist Emmanuel Guibert. For two decades, his contact sheets languished in boxes. Lefevre's assignment was to document the difficulties of providing humanitarian aid - along the way, he captured 4,000 images.Īt the time, only six of Lefevre's photographs were published in newspapers. In 1986, French photographer Didier Lefevre traveled illegally into Soviet-controlled Afghanistan with a medical team from Doctors Without Borders who were on a mission to set up a field hospital. Critics' Lists: Summer '09 Librarian Nancy Pearl Picks Summer's Best Books

The Photographer by Emmanuel Guibert