The exercise is practically impossible to do and yet we have imposed it on the photographers of The Press : among the (tens of) thousands of images they have taken since the beginning of their career, which are the ten that have been the most striking? A heartbreaking and very personal choice. This month, Martin Tremblay delved into his archives.
Posted yesterday at 6:00 p.m.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
April 2005, United States. A rock festival where all the lyrics are praise to God. A Woodstock of Christian rock. The Ichthus Festival brought together a young religious audience who came to listen to their favorite Christian music group. Under a tent, a preacher surrounded by a dozen young people talks about God using humour. Further on, the sound of a man reciting a verse from the Old Testament catches my attention. The time to look up at him, a young man looking like an outsider comes to hear him. I trigger my camera, just long enough to take a few shots. And it was over.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
August 2005, Niger. They made the trip behind a dump truck for hours. A very long road where the desert dried up the landscape. Exhausted, dehydrated and starving, a mother arrived with her child at a makeshift Doctors Without Borders hospital. In 2005, Niger, Africa’s poorest country, faced a deadly food crisis. “Take pictures so the world can see what’s going on here,” this Italian doctor asks me. Little Brahim had trouble drinking from his mother’s breast. Exhausted, he let his head fall from behind, unconscious in his mother’s arms. It was too late. The famine had just made a new victim. That’s when my photos took on a bigger dimension. They had to go beyond the news and convey compassion and sensitivity.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
December 2006, Democratic Republic of Congo. To live in terror of massacres, looting and kidnappings. North Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is rich in natural resources. This wealth fuels endless conflict. The latest estimate speaks of nearly 5 million deaths. A war that has its roots in the legacy of the genocide of its neighbour, Rwanda. In 2006, I went to this African country to bear witness to these women who are raped in a barbaric way. Rape as a weapon of war. A psychological weapon. All these testimonies marked my memory as a photojournalist. Particularly that of Jacqueline M’Kahasha, who says she was raped in front of her children.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
August 2007, Afghanistan. I returned to Afghanistan a few years later. This time, integrated into the Canadian Armed Forces as a war correspondent for six weeks. It was war, a battle now lost. Canadian soldiers who left a part of themselves in the sands of Kandahar. Getting on the road was like playing a game of Russian roulette. Several died. Journalist colleagues were injured. Attacks and improvised bombs occupied all my attention and that of the Canadian news at that time.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
November 2016, Haiti. A letter published in The Press written by two doctors working for the organization Doctors of the World caught my attention in 2016. It denounces the end of Canadian funding for the fight against the cholera epidemic in Haiti. Some 10,000 dead, 800,000 sick. Cholera is ravaging. After denying the obvious for six years, the UN admitted in 2016 that it was its soldiers who brought the disease to the island. This report made the Canadian political class and the readers of The Press. Funding from Canada was renewed and the increase in the international budget in response to the admissions of the UN made it possible to end the epidemic in 2019.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
March 2017, Quebec. A snowstorm in Quebec is classic. But when it paralyzes the main highways in the south of the province, it becomes big news. On that evening in 2017, I was one of the victims stranded on Highway 20 while others were stuck on Highway 13. I couldn’t see through my camera’s viewfinder. I walked blinded by strong gusts of wind and snow. Only the shadows made by the vehicle lights were visible.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
March 2017, Quebec. The migration crisis was making headlines around the world. Initial information said that migrants were illegally crossing the Canadian border. Martin Pelchat, news director at The Press, offered me to go there. A longshot, in journalistic terms. A flood of migrants awaited us on Roxham Road at the beginning of January 2017. They came from all over the world. A whole life in their suitcases. Thousands of families would follow the path to Canada, claiming refugee status. Nearly half will have to return to their country of origin.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
October 2021, Armenia. The small Caucasus country is suffering from post-traumatic shock, after being attacked by its neighbor Azerbaijan in 2020. Past traumas suffered during the 1915 Armenian Genocide are resurfacing. After the defeat, the country is on its knees before Azerbaijan and its powerful Turkish ally. Today, the Russian Army ensures peace between the two enemies. Vladimir Putin’s soldiers maintain his influence in this region. Light filters through incense smoke during Sunday mass at Saint-Grégoire-l’Illuminateur Cathedral in Goris.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
March 2022, Ukraine. More than 4.5 million Ukrainians have fled the fighting in mass exile. I asked several customs officers to let me board the train to Poland. They refused, every time. A few minutes before the train left Lviv station, I asked a customs officer for the last car on the train. “You have 30 seconds to take your picture,” she told me. Once on board, what surprised me was the silence of the passengers. Then, their deep gaze, filled with anguish. Then I saw a man with war wounds on his hands and face. I photographed his gaze in which all the effects of the war appeared. Covering the war in Ukraine is an unforgettable journalistic experience.