JOSÉ NICOLAS

12 X 17 cm / 24 pages / janvier 2017

isbn : 978-2-35137-210-4

Texte (français & english) : Sophie Bernard 

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Quand José Nicolas quitte Toulouse pour se lancer dans le grand bain de la photographie, il rencontre Bernard Kouchner qui vient de créer Médecins du monde, alors présent sur de nombreux fronts, du Liban à la mer de Chine. En 1994, alors qu’il suit l’Opération Turquoise au Rwanda, il est grièvement blessé. Suivent plusieurs mois d’hospitalisation dont il ressort avec le désir de devenir indépendant et de donner une nouvelle impulsion à son travail. Mais il reste guidé par la même envie de témoigner, d’imprimer un regard humaniste à un travail documentaire, comme en témoigne les savoureuses images cambodgiennes de ce livre.

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When José Nicolas left Toulouse to try his hand at photography, he met Bernard Kouchner who had recently founded “Médecins du Monde” (Doctors of the World). The humanitarian association was active in many places – from Lebanon to the China Sea – and Nicolas spent two years travelling the world in their company and learning his trade.
Goksin Sipahioglu, the founder of the SIPA Press agency, decided to take him under his wing in 1984. As a result, the photographer spent several years covering the world’s most dangerous places: Chad, the Liberian war in 1990, the Lebanese war from 1984 to 1986, the Romanian revolution of 1989, Bosnia from 1991 to 1996, Somalia in 1992/1993…
In 1994, he was seriously wounded while covering “Operation Turquoise” in Rwanda. He emerged from several months in hospital with a desire to go freelance and give his work a new impetus. But as these delightful images of Cambodia show, he remains driven by the same passion: to convey a sense of humanism to his documentary work.