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“[My photos of] the sky full of smoke, or all those soldiers going through the sandstorm in Baghdad, or just a body wrapped in a white sheet. These things are very strong -- they have got a real impact and also they tell about the environment, the place and what it is there. They tell about death very quickly. They tell about war in daily life, which is more than the war as you can imagine it. You can show a war without showing a gun, and that's interesting – in only one photograph.”
--The late Alexandra Boulat
Back in mid-August, my post mentioned the accomplished French photojournalist, Alexandra Boulat, who had suffered an aneurism in June and fallen into a coma. Last Friday, she passed away in Paris and the world lost a vital witness. Please take a moment to absorb a gallery or two of this woman's incredible talent and efforts.
It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of Mlle Boulat’s work which took us through major global conflicts in places like Afghanistan, the former Yugoslavia and most recently, Iraq. In her short 45 years on this blue marble, Boulat cast her attentive eye on a troubled world, lest it go unrecorded. Self-described as "easily bored" and intensely curious, Boulat was, by all accounts, an earnest gentle soul and a dogged photojournalist. History is made every day but without the efforts of Boulat and her colleagues, the effects on humanity can otherwise be discounted or forgotten. We desperately need that evidence.
As the daughter of a photo-minded parents (Dad was Life Magazine photographer, Pierre Boulat, and Mom, Annie, was the founder of the France-based Cosmos photo agency) the camera was a natural appendage for young Alexandra. She first pursued a career in art and found work as a painter before becoming a photojournalist in 1989. Later, she co-founded VII Photo Agency in 2001, along with several other photographers, and helped run the new agency from the Boulat family apartment in Paris.
“I was told that this job is a very hard job. Very early I wanted to become a photographer, and as soon as my father understood that, he tried to stop me from doing this job. He constantly looked at my pictures saying, 'What do you think? Do you think this is easy? This picture means nothing.' He was very discouraging. He thought that this is not a job for a woman who wants to have a family and raise children and be home for her husband.”
--Alexandra Boulat
Shooting for Sipa Press for ten years, she documented the war in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo as well as the effects of international sanctions on Iraq. While covering the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, she revealed a personal side to Yasser Arafat with a photo essay that included his family. Readers of Time, Newsweek, Paris Match and National Geographic, and several other international publications, certainly benefited from her bravery and insight.
Boulat’s photographs cut directly to the heart of the matter and she was drawn to the innocent victims of war, the dispossessed and the abused - usually women and children.
Never one to seek safety, Boulat lived in the West Bank city of Ramallah for the past two years to document the rise of the Islamic militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“It took me a while before I started to be horrified. I became horrified when I understood that my presence would, most of the time, not change much. When I understood that, it doesn't help much, or my presence is not necessary, then I started to look at the situation with more humanity. I became more a part of it.
If you can't help, if you have no reason to be there, just don't be there. You can either be a humanitarian worker, or bring the money, or be a political person to visit the place and bring attention to it. But it's hard to just there for yourself. It's too much.”--Alexandra Boulat
Boulat is survived by her mother, Annie, her sisters Antoinette and Lucy, and her partner, Issa Freij. A memorial service will be held on Friday, 12 October in the chapel at Jacqueville, outside Paris, where Alexandra will be laid to rest beside her father, Pierre Boulat.
A family foundation will be established in the coming weeks to support the ideals and issues that Alexandra and Pierre espoused. For more information, contact: boulat_foundation@viiphoto.com. If you wish to send flowers, address them to:
Cimetière de Jacqueville
77 760 Amponville, France
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