The Photographer: Into War-torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders |  | Author: Emmanuel Guibert
Publisher: First Second
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
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Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 89855
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 12
 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
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.
Another Angle in a Complicated - and Tragic - Story May 25, 2009
Mr. Richard D. Coreno (Berea, Ohio USA)
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
The decades of war in Afghanistan remains such a mystery for so many that words alone may not deliver a true understanding of the region, its people and the various local factions that have incredible significance in the international chess game of politics.
This incredible memoir that mixes stunning photography with powerful comic art is presented by Didier Lefevre, Emmanuel Guibert and Frederic Lemercier. Lefevre took photographs for Doctors Without Borders as a village clinic was being established in the Hindu Kush mountains.
The rugged and stark terrain comes alive through the resiliency of people who want normalcy in their lives. The unique presentation of material chronicles an important angle in an ongoing tragic story of war and peace.
An absorbing story as it is harsh August 6, 2009
Parka (Singapore)
I bought the book because a caption on the back cover caught my attention. "I take out one of my cameras. I choose a 20mm lens, a very wide angle, and shoot from the ground. To let people know where I died."
Well, that and because the book was selling for only £6 on Amazon UK.
In July 1986, French photojournalist Didier Lefèvre took on an assignment to document the efforts of Doctors Without Borders in war-torn Afghanistan. The story is told with photographs comic-book style, with the illustrations of Emmanuel Guibert filling in the blanks and dialogues throughout, based off the notes taken.
What we have here is a story that's incredibly absorbing and powerful. Through the photos and narration, we're immediately transported to Afghanistan, just right beside Didier Lefèvre. The feeling is no different when you're in a different country, experiencing a different culture and way of life. We get to see what he sees, hear what he hears. We walk along the same hazardous mountain paths, always on the lookout for Russian helicopters. And we try to find meaning into the work done by Doctors Without Borders, be it bandaging a poor boy's burnt foot or cutting out the dead cornea of a soldier.
This is a difficult book to read, in the sense that you're confronted with the realities of war. Just behind the front line of war, we're with the doctors, looking at how these people cope with the war and their lives. There will be many moments to set you thinking about what these people are fighting for. Many times you'll want to leave Afghanistan, something we can just do by putting down the book, but not easily too as we're drawn to find out how the journey ends.
The Photographer is a very raw and powerful account of the journey Didier Lefèvre went through, as well as the work of Doctors Without Borders. The story is as absorbing as it is harsh at the same time.
5-stars for bringing me to a place I'll not want to go.
(Check out my Amazon profile for other books I've reviewed.)
The Bookschlepper Recommends August 15, 2009
Jean Sue Libkind (Philadelphia)
The Photographer: Into War-Torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders by Didier Lefèvre (the photojournalist), Emmanuel Guibert (the graphic artist) and Frederic Lémércier, translated from the French. A creative solution to a problem: what do you do with reels of stunning photos from the Russian-Afghan war after the talented photographer has died? Answer: use his proof sheets and journal notes and supplement them with graphic panels. This combination memoir of a naïve young man's first trip to the battlefield and his excellent and candid photos of DWB in action are augmented by "comic-strip" panels to fill in the blanks in the adventure. It works extremely well. It is, moreover, a good story that also deepens our understanding of Afghanistan while highlighting the modus operandi of dedicated NGO medical personnel in a war zone. Didier is young and innocent, and, thus, brave. He sets out to return from the field alone. He is kidnapped, robbed, close to death, in desperate straits before a local chieftain saves him. A dramatic story, well told. And, now that bloggers are running around the world reporting on trouble spots, this should be required preparatory reading so they don't blunder across boundaries and become the news themselves.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 12
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