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The Photographer: Into War-torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders |  | Author: Emmanuel Guibert
Publisher: First Second
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy Used: $8.15
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Seller: friends-library
Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 204042
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st American Edition
Pages: 288
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.9
Dimensions (in): 11.7 x 9.4 x 1
ISBN: 1596433752
Dewey Decimal Number: 610.6010222
EAN: 9781596433755
ASIN: 1596433752
Publication Date: May 12, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Book Description
In 1986, Afghanistan was torn apart by a war with the Soviet Union. This graphic novel/photo-journal is a record of one reporter's arduous and dangerous journey through Afghanistan accompanying the Doctors Without Borders. Didier Lefèvreâs photography, paired with the art of Emmanuel Guibert, tells the powerful story of a mission undertaken by men and women dedicated to mending the wounds of war.
Take a Look Inside The Photographer
These color panels and striking landscapes document Didier Lefèvre's journey across the Hindu Kush mountains with Doctors Without Borders (click each image to see the full page). Mountain crossing with a caravan of horses and donkeys
 | Clinic in northern Afghanistan's Yaftal Valley
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 14
 Painfully real, beautifully told November 27, 2009
Mom and daughter
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This just sucks you in as you read. I'm not a fan of graphic novels, but this transcends that genre, melding photography with drawing to tell the story of a Doctors beyond Borders mission to Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation there. Not only a great story, but it provides useful background to current events.
 A for effort and F for results November 25, 2009
Phillip Marsh (Texas)
5 out of 10 found this review helpful
This photographer was lacking in both technical skills and powers of observation. Had the members of the expedition each been handed a point and shoot camera the resulting collection of pictures would have been no worse. I looked hard to find a single good image where the photographer was aware of what was taking place and making an effort to do more than snap a photo.
Anyone who has seen the photography of people like Don McCullin, Susan Meiselas, Philip Jones Griffiths, Eddie Adams, James Nachtwey, Robert Capa or even Mathew Brady, would quickly come to see the difference when a true photographer is present to record the events and people of lands in conflict zones. A photographer doing truly memorable work today is Chris Hondros. Check out his pictures from Iraq taken in 2005 when he was 35 (who at that age had already been photographing wars in Kosovo, Angola, Sierra Leone, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Kashmir, the West Bank, and Liberia)and you will have a much better idea of what a photographer with a camera can capture.
It was particularly bothersome to see that Lefevre was present at key moments but clearly failed to point his camera in the right direction or press the shutter at the right moment. The result is that most of the images that are completely lifeless and fail to communicate the emotions of the people any more than dioramas in a museum.
There are too many great people who honed their skills and risked their lives to capture the horror of war to give this book consideration. Get the book "the concerned photographer" with images compiled by Cornell Capa, brother of Robert Capa, if you want to see what was missed by Lefevre. Actually quite pathetic to have a book that is supposed to be showcasing a photographer's work that consists primarily of images by a cartoonist. In this regard the book does stand alone.
It is really a vain effort an an homage to a person who died young and attempted to be a photographer but clearly failed in that effort. It reminds me of the last Bruce Lee film that was completed after his death and it showed. But at least the footage that was of Bruce Lee held its own which cannot be said for the pictures of Lefevre. That is my opinion but it was also that of Guibert and Lemercier who did not release a book that contained only the pictures of Lefevre, and it was also the opinion of the publisher who had to get a glowing endorsement from a novelist and non-photographer.
A powerful way to remember someone who did more than his part to help us understand the world November 23, 2009
GraphicNovelReporter.com (New York, NY)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Beyond the headlines, behind the countless stories of war in Afghanistan, and what it means to live there now, lie millions of stories. Human stories, personal histories, and day-to-day activities that can be downright banal if not for the war, religion, and politics that constantly affect everything and everyone living there. There is always the question of how we got here, how Afghanistan reached this point in its history, and what we in North America don't understand about the country.
The Photographer does not exactly sum up everything, but that's not its job. Its role is a deceptively simple one. It's "merely" the story of a photographer, Didier Lefèvre, hired to document the work of several physicians working for Doctors Without Borders in Afghanistan in July 1986. To say it's informative is an understatement.
What Lefèvre experienced--beginning with adjusting to the heat, followed by learning to acclimate socially in this conservative country--is epic in scale, and the book's heft gives proper exposure to Lefèvre's life. The Photographer was originally published in Lefèvre's native France, where it's sold 250,000 copies. Now a worldwide phenomenon, its U.S. release is an event, as it should be. The story deserves it. Lefèvre deserves it.
It's hard to describe what Lefèvre went through in a short synopsis. He returned with 4,000 photos, substantially fewer teeth and less body weight, and a severe case of exhaustion. In the book, he goes through a cute "initiation" from the doctors, earns their trust and respect, and then becomes part of this culture and society that is at once so fascinating and so foreign to him.
The thousands of photos Lefèvre took remained unpublished for the most part for decades after his return. It was his stories of his time there that got the most airing, but mostly only for his friends. One of those friends, Emmanuel Guibert (Alan's War), became the conduit for creating The Photographer, and the book is richer for it. Guibert has a knack for lending his subtle pencils to true life stories, and the way his artwork seamlessly blends in with Lefèvre's photographs is brilliant. That's in large part due to the stellar work of designer Frédéric Lemercier.
An afterword to The Photographer gives an update on the key players of the story, which is a thankfully thorough explanation for readers, who will inevitably be left craving more. Lefèvre was indeed someone whose eyes opened up new insights for others. That he shared them in this remarkable book is a wonderful statement about his life and a powerful way to remember someone who did more than his part to help us understand the world a little bit better.
-- John Hogan
Most prized book October 9, 2009
Christian R. Burger (Chicago, IL)
The Photographer is without a doubt within the top ten books of my collection. I have recently become a fan of the graphic novel and consider this among its best expressions. If you are not yet a fan, don't let that put you off. True, it is more than graphic novel. The blending of what must be award winning pictures from Afghanistan with the carefully drawn characters and situations makes this book compelling and fun to read. It may be trite to say, but you do feel like you are there, something hard to achieve with straight narrative.
The story is a simple one, of a caravan moving through remote regions of the war torn country to deliver medical supplies and aid. What could have been told in essay form or as a short memoir and succeeded well enough became a timeless lens on a special place and journey.
There are photographs of the men (and one important woman) who make the dangerous trip. In the beginning, you see the secret handshake as they negotiate for their pack animals. This is but one small example of the wonders in this volume.
Giving this book five stars felt a little unfair...it deserves six...as do the men and women of Doctors Sans Frontiers.
An amazing adventure. August 18, 2009
Cindy Solorzano Lopez (Long Beach, NY USA)
This is a beautiful story. The images, pictures, colors make for the most intense movie ever and the story is Afghanistan as seen by Didier and not by politicians or sentimentalists.
Great translation as well.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 14
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