HOMMAGE

May 12, 2014 – May 12

2024 10 years since Camille left us.

Camille was murdered while accompanying anti-balaka on motorbikes in the west of the Central African Republic, near the Cameroonian border. They were ambushed.

Camille was doing her job as a photojournalist.

Camille, a young woman of 26 who decided one day to leave with her backpack, her cameras, her beautiful smile, her lucidity, her humanity, her sense of others, her will and her outlook.

Above all, she left with an indestructible determination to settle in countries in conflict about which the media did not speak enough for her liking. Camille wanted to live among the local populations of South Sudan and the Central African Republic. She wanted to meet them day by day to bear witness to the living conditions in these countries in great difficulty.

Camille went to meet them, she gained their trust and shared their daily life. They discovered her as she was: young, bubbly, curious and serious about her work. They accepted it and they loved it.

 

The association “Camille Lepage – On est ensemble” was created almost 10 years ago to continue Camille’s commitment and values ​​and particularly to help these innocent populations in these countries in conflict, notably South Sudan and the Central African Republic, but also support photojournalists. to carry out their reporting projects in the spirit that animated Camille.

For 10 years, the association has supported numerous events around Camille: the Camille LEPAGE prize at the Visa pour l’image International Photojournalism Festival with the support of Jean-François Leroy and the SAIF, exhibitions in France and abroad. stranger. foreigner, meetings with middle and high school students, a film “Camille” directed by Boris Lojkine with Nina Meurisse who plays the character of Camille, two books. A square in Paris and several streets, schools and high schools bear his name.

This exhibition is a way of marking this date without Camille, but it is also, with the association and many friends, a way of paying tribute to her, of thanking her for everything she accomplished during her three years of photojournalist: a quality recognized by the profession, but also and above all values ​​and a commitment which lead us today to continue to make people talk about it.

 

We are together !

Maryvonne LEPAGE
Maman de Camille et Présidente de l’association « Camille Lepage – On est ensemble ».

60 000

Sixty thousand photos. This is the number of images taken by Camille LEPAGE during her three years of professional activity spent in Sudan, South Sudan and the Central African Republic. Each photographer edits their work before presenting it. In photojournalist jargon, this phase is called “editing”. Without hindsight, with the emotion felt on the ground, these are difficult choices which force us to reject one image in favor of another to arrive at a reasonable number. Out of sixty thousand photos, only a thousand had found favor in Camille’s eyes. They enabled the publication of two books (RCA published in August 2014 by CDP ÉDITIONS and Pure anger in 2017 by La Martinière) and provided the material for numerous exhibitions in France and abroad. But the fifty-nine thousand other images remained invisible on his hard drives: files sometimes damaged, without metadata, without caption, without date or place of shooting. We immersed ourselves in this raw production. We discover his errors, his research. We share the unfolding of a day’s work, ranging from extreme violence to calming escapes. We feel the emotion, the violence, the pain, the sadness, sometimes the laughter and the joy that Camille witnessed on the front line. We discover her tenacity in capturing a scene, her ability to be accepted wherever she looks. We see its framing become clearer, its distance refined. We feel her anger in the face of what revolts her. We sometimes feel lost in the face of the madness or absurdity of what she encounters. And in the middle of this hubbub, a beer and a cigarette shared in a burst of laughter, Camille’s face lights up the screen: her box has changed hands for an instant. In front of these thousands of images that pass by, all of Camille’s professional intimacy appears. And above all remarkable photographs. For their aesthetic and journalistic quality. For the testimony they provide. For this insight into the complex and contradictory aspects of humanity. In this Hommage exhibition, thirty-five images from the Central African Republic and thirty-five images from Sudan and South Sudan are revealed. Seventy unpublished photographs which confirm the great photographer in the making that was Camille LEPAGE.

 

Lorenzo VIRGILI
Commissaire d’exposition

HOMMAGE

Camille LEPAGE made long stays in the Central African Republic (CAR) from October 2013 to May 2014. Here are some highlights from this period. President François BOZIZÉ was overthrown in March 2013 by Michel DJOTODIA, leader of the predominantly Muslim Séléka rebel coalition. Tensions between ethnic and religious groups lead to violence against the civilian population, particularly in predominantly Christian regions. In response, self-defense militias called Antibalaka (anti-Kalashnikov bullets) in turn committed atrocities against Muslim populations. The country is on fire. Faced with the escalation of violence, the international community is mobilizing, the UN Security Council mandates the Pan-African International Support Mission (MISCA) and the French forces (Operation Sangaris) to intervene to restore security. Under international pressure, Michel DJOTODIA resigned in January 2014. Catherine SAMBA-PANZA was elected transitional president to lead the country towards democratic elections while sporadic armed groups multiplied with the aim of establishing a reign of terror and monopolizing diamonds and other Central African mineral wealth. Since 2016, Faustin ARCHANGE TOUADERA has been the head of state. Armed groups nevertheless remain very active throughout the territory and violence against civilians continues today.

 

This image is not offered for sale. Following this introduction you will find all the photos taken by Camille in CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

In Bossangoa, over 41000 IDPs have fled their villages to take refuge in the bishop’s compound. The majority of them are christian and were targeted by the Seleka, the rebel group that took power with a coup in March 2013.

December 8th 2013, Bangui, Central African Republic, civilians.

December 8th 2013, Bangui, Central African Republic, civilians.

December 8th 2013, Bangui, Central African Republic, civilians.

December 8th 2013, Bangui, Central African Republic, civilians.

On December 8, 2013, at Camp de Roux in Bangui, former Séléka rebels arrested men accused of being anti-Balaka, followed by a press conference by President Djotodia.

On December 10, Christians from Bangui looted a store owned by a Muslim in the Combattants district, close to the airport. They demand the departure of Muslims and President Djotodia.

In the Muslim neighborhood of 5 Kilo, Christians are protected by Muslims while tensions between the city’s different faiths increase.

Camille LEPAGE spent long stays in South Sudan between July 2012 and February 2014. Here are some highlights from this period. After 20 years of civil war, South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in July 2011, becoming the world’s youngest state. Despite hopes, the country faces numerous economic, political, border and ethnic challenges. Within the South Sudanese government itself, tensions are increasing between President KIIR (of the Dinka ethnic group) and his vice-president MACHAR (of the Nuer ethnic group). In December 2013, violent clashes broke out in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, between the two groups that share power. It was the start of a war that forced millions of South Sudanese to flee and left hundreds of thousands of victims. The health situation, particularly in refugee camps, and widespread famine are worsening the toll. Numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity are denounced by UNICEF and the UN. Peace negotiations begin in January 2014 in Addis Ababa? in Ethiopia, leading to an agreement to cease hostilities in February 2014. Without success. No peace agreement, the last of which dates from February 2020, seems to prevent insecurity and armed clashes in the country whose human development index (HDI) is the lowest in the world.

 

This image is not offered for sale. Following this introduction you will find all the photos taken by Camille in SOUTH SUDAN – SUDAN

A soldier who lost his leg during the war against Sudan passes by soldiers during the 7th anniversary of Martyrs’ day on July 30, 2012 in Juba. For the second time since the secession from Sudan, South Sudanese came to commemorate the 7th anniversary of Martyrs’ day in rememberance of the soldiers who lost their life during the war against Sudan.

 

 

Daniel, student in Juba, and from the Nuer tribe flee his house in Munuki, Juba, South Sudan, a couple of days after the crisis erupted in the capital on December 15th.
On January 25th, he comes back to his house to find it looted. The looting took place a few days before, and was carried out by the SPLA according to his neighbors.

This photo taken on October 29, 2012, shows refugees from South Kordofan gathering in the shade of trees at dusk at the Yida Refugee Camp in South Sudan. Yida refugee camp in South Sudan currently hosts over 65,000 refugees coming mainly displaced South Kordofan in Sudan after fighting broke out between north and south Sudan forces in June 2011. A severe lack of food, ongoing bombings along with a dry climatic spell has led humanitarian organisations to expect a further influx of 15,000 to 30,000 refugees from the Nuba Mountains by the end of the year.

 

 
In Yuai village, Uror county, Jonglei state, South Sudan, the youth from Lou Nuer tribe are coming home after fighting against the rebel group of Yau Yau, in Pibor county, South Sudan on July 23rd 2013. 
 
 

This photo taken on July 20, 2012, shows a child working to fix shoes as men clean themselves with water before praying at the mosque in Juba on the first day of Ramadan. Muslims fasting during the month of Ramadan must abstain from food, drink and sex from dawn to dusk, when they break the fast with a meal known as Iftar.

 

 
In Yuai village, Uror county, Jonglei state, South Sudan, the youth from Lou Nuer tribe are coming home after fighting against the rebel group of Yau Yau, in Pibor county, South Sudan on July 23rd 2013. 
 
 
In Yuai village, Uror county, Jonglei state, South Sudan, the youth from Lou Nuer tribe are coming home after fighting against the rebel group of Yau Yau, in Pibor county, South Sudan on July 23rd 2013. 
 
 
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