Editor’s note
This is a unique documentary record of thirty years of Kurdish history. In March 1991, Lâm Duc Hiên, a humanitarian and war photographer, travelled to Iraqi Kurdistan with Assocation Equilibre to help the Kurds being bombed by Saddam Hussein.
For the last ten years he has been travelling round this region with his box of pictures, trying to find the people he immortalised in 1991 and 1994. The faces he has found, marked by the passage of time, tell the story of a mountainous terrain where Muslims, Christians, Yezidis, Kakais, Mandeans, Zoroastrians and Jews live side by side. Thirty years later, stories and improbable encounters resurface. Two men he had photographed were later to become presidents.
The photographer moves ever closer to people’s faces: “I take my portrait photos as near as possible to people, until I can see myself in their pupils. I can see myself in their eyes”.
Lâm Duc Hiên is a Franco-Laotian photographer, a member of Agence VU. Born in 1966 in Laos, he followed his family into exile after the victory of the Pathet-Lao. From the night crossing of the Mekong into Thailand to the two years in a refugee camp, including two escapes, the journey he embarked on to reach France would mark him for ever. In 1977, the year of his arrival in France, he turned to a career in the arts and obtained a diploma in Fine Arts in Plastic Expression.
His openness to the world colours his photographic work with a humanist sensitivity. His commitment is reflected both in his personal projects and in commissions for the press and for NGOs. Romania, Russia, Bosnia, Chechnya, Rwanda, Sudan and especially Iraq are the territories he covers. His testimony takes on a deeper meaning against the backdrop of the widespread destruction brought about by the major conflicts of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Committed to the protection of natural resources, he also documents the impact of contemporary changes on the way of life along the Mekong and Niger rivers.
Since the Gulf War, he has become a direct eyewitness to the suffering of the Iraqi population. A people bruised and battered by the devastating consequences of the international embargo and the terror imposed by Saddam Hussein’s regime. His lens focuses on the ruined hospitals, schools, markets, etc. which express the Iraqi people’s weariness and lack of resources.
His work regularly appears in the press, in books and in exhibitions. He has won the Leica Award, the city of Vevey European Prize, the Villa Medicis Hors les Murs grant and the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation Prize. His collection of portraits “Iraqi People” earned him first prize in the prestigious World Press Photo Awards.
