From Vietnam to Ukraine, Patrick Chauvel

Of course, there are the photos which often express what cannot be said. But what is striking between the lines in this album are the lyrics. The words that sum up the essence of the reporting profession, starting with those of Patrick Chauvel himself.

If the dangers of the front are familiar, let us be wary of returns. The fear of everyday life, the desire for solitude. War is like going to the moon, peace is the other world. You have to adapt to the silences and sometimes to the indifference.”

Patrick Chauvel

at franceinfo

When you experience the tragedies of a war zone on the ground, and when you bring to the attention of all the suffering experienced and the testimonies, you have the impression of being useful. But on returning, we see a dividing line. We enter the “world of peace” with so many stories to tell and remember, as the lives around focus on day-to-day issues, “and you can’t blame people for living their lives”but the discrepancy is profound, especially when you think of those you left behind in the Kharkiv metro, in the trenches of Donbass, in the ruins of Aleppo, to hear back in Paris, at a Saturday evening meal , moaning at the table because of a water leak, all that becomes ridiculous.

And then there is the notion of guilt, “Eating a good steak on a terrace in France while having flashes in your head, you see again the guys you met and with whom you shared a piece of hell to inform, and who remained there, in the mud and under fire”. So, as he says in this column, Patrick takes his motorbike to get some speed, clear his mind, or else he takes the top off his Mustang – no matter the weather – and rides on the country roads. To empty.

And in this album, there is the text of those who want to show their affection for Patrick Chauvel and their unfailing admiration. Friends for many. Remy Ourdan, Sorj Chalandon, Jean-Marc Barr. Adrien Jaulmes or even Frédérique Drogoul of “Médecins du monde” who remembers the Chechnya. Chu Chi Thành, former Vietnam News Agency war correspondent, “Chauvel was keen to show the war, seen from the other side, in particular, our work, Vietnamese photographers”. Chu Chi Thành says he is deeply touched by Patrick’s desire to make the voices of the unknown witnesses of history heard.

For Chauvel, everything is normal, it is the basis of journalism, and he is only following the trajectory drawn by a memorandum he will never forget. That of Pierre Lazareff, boss of France Evening, “Point and counterpoint”. Patrick Chauvel’s obsession is to go to the Russian side today, not for any affinity, simply to bring the counterpoint.

And then there’s the pain of Don McCullin : “The newspapers no longer open their pages to war reporters on the pretext that it would cost too much, that it would not sell, why, for whom, did some of them give their lives? Did they die in vain?”

And if Ukraine is reversing this trend today, it is because war is at our doorstep, it is in Europe and it threatens world peace. We must not play with words says Chauvel, it is a conflict where the Europeans and the Americans deliver weapons against the Russians, “it’s a world war”. And since the interest of the war – since it is close to our borders – has been manifested in all the newsrooms, and since since the Balkans and Chechnya, the number of media has increased considerably, the number of journalists on the spot in the first weeks of war is so important that it becomes dangerous.

They all want to go to the front, they all want to be with the Ukrainian battalions which, overwhelmed by demands, end up no longer supporting the overflow of reporters. The Ukrainians can’t respond to everyone, they get on board every day, they have positions to hold, and defense strategies to think about and carry out, in order to respond to the Russian aggressor.

Don McCullin did not go to Ukraine. He now turns his lens to the landscapes of Somerset, South West England, which stretch out in front of his house. He says to himself “retired from horror who knew how to keep his balance”, but also forged by a certainty: “None of his photos has changed the course of things, even slightly. But if a photo has never prevented a war, at least it gives it consistency. , it is already to restore the facts”.

If Don McCullin no longer goes into the field, Patrick Chauvel cannot resolve to retire. The energy of the first days is still there. Because he wants to live History and not read it. Tell the facts with his sensitivity.

Adrien Jaulmes, Albert-Londres prize, describes him as ageless, “because reporting has always been a way of life for him more than a job”. And in its aim, “Patrick Chauvel’s gaze shines with more lifewrites Sorj Chalandon, it’s because he’s been through the worst and takes care of the best.”