Friday, September 5, 2008

Véronique de Viguerie Under Fire






A couple of weeks ago, a group of Talibs in Afghanistan killed 10 French soldiers (attached to the NATO forces), and were subsequently photographed by Véronique de Viguerie, a photographer working with the French news magazine Paris Match, wearing the French soldiers' uniforms.

A firestorm erupted in France following the publication of the photographs in the Paris-Match magazine, finding it indecent for a French magazine to show such images. Accusations that payment was made to the Talibs by the photojournalist were made, but rejected as false.

In the above clip (in French), De Viguerie explains her meeting with the Taliban fighters. 'It took some time, and we used some of our contacts out there'. She used a fixer/interpreter to get to the Taliban fighters, who will only meet with women reporters as they believe that men could be spies.

In her thirties, de Viguerie says that she wasn't too comfortable meeting them. 'But, when you follow the rules and when you have the authorization of their leaders, we become their guests'.

I'm not sure why it's Véronique de Viguerie who's under fire. Isn't it the decision of Paris-Match editors to publish?

Via The British Journal of Photography's blog (link)