Read this book now.
As some of you may be aware, I'm studying the the development of photographic conflict coverage for my dissertation. After being recommended a review to read by my tutor, I subsequently didn't bother reading all of it, and went out to buy the book it discussed - The Photographer - from Borders. If I'm going to use a source in the most important academic piece of writing I'm going to do, then I want my own opinion of it!
The graphic novel tells the story of a French photographer (Didier Lefevre) embedded with Medicins Sans Frontiers in Afghanistan, during the Soviet conflict of the 1980s, who spent several months documenting the mission for MSF. Lefevre's photography is built into a rich tapestry of a story, through the use of illustrated insertions between images that add his own comments, memories and opinions to the material, in a manner not so blunt as a caption or accompanying written copy in a newspaper. The depth in which the method of storytelling immerses you is really something - certainly beyond traditional photojournalism that I've seen, with Frederic Lemercier's artwork fitting like a jigsaw between the images from Lefevre's contact sheets. Until this book was published in 2003, only a tiny number of the images had ever been used in print, never mind knitted together into a tale of this type.
Put simply, this book is outstanding. I bought it tonight, read it in one go over a couple of hours, and finished it feeling like I'd read something really special - and I'm certainly not normally a fan of graphic novels. If you have any interest in photojournalism (I'm talking about the tiniest glimmer of enthusiasm), then you have to read it; if you don't, then you should pick up a copy anyway. It is one of the most fascinating, enjoyable things I have ever seen done with photography, and I'm completely blown away by how a dull trip to a bookshop for a dissertation source has turned into something so rewarding.
"The Photographer: Into War-Torn Afghanistan with Medicins Sans Frontiers" is out now, costs about £10 from Borders (click here), and should be in your basket within 10 minutes of reading this. You can also see some samples of the work, by looking on this site - Click.
(Thanks to Richard Brunton on the Forbidden Planet blog for the link to the sample)