Even after his death, Abbas continues to be where it’s needed, when it’s needed. By coincidence that even Reporters Without Borders (RSF) had not foreseen, the association’s album dedicated to the famous Iranian photographer is being released this Thursday, March 9, when a wind of protest has been blowing over his native country since several months. In 1978, he drew his camera there to capture the revolution that led to the mullahs’ seizure of power.
“The Iranian revolution was a pivotal, traumatic moment for him. He was shocked to see the movement taken over by religious extremism, to see what men were capable of doing in the name of God”, reports Jeanne Poret, editor at RSF. Later, the atheist photographer documented man’s relationship to religions, from the resurgence of Islam in the Maghreb in the early 1990s to animist spirituality, from the origins of Christianity to Hindu polytheism.
“Abbas triggers, and the world wakes up”
The story of Abbas and RSF begins just before the Iranian revolution. In 1978, he went to Johannesburg and met the current president of the association, Pierre Haski, member of the South African bureau of Agence France-Presse. The links created then do not come undone. The journalist also signs the foreword to the album, testifying to their closeness. “This album, Abbas aspired to it. It was he himself who offered his shots to RSF in an almost complete model. explains Jeanne Poret. A ten-year-old project that the photographer, who died in 2018, will not have seen born.
Over the hundred photos that make up the album, Abbas’ entire career is revealed. A black and white work that spans three decades and travels between Vietnam and Biafra, Iran and Northern Ireland, Afghanistan and South Africa. It is there, moreover, that he captures one of his most famous photographic compositions. The one that went around the world, revealing to the world the horror of apartheid, chosen by RSF to cover the album. White Colonel SJ Malan poses in front of his black police cadets. “Faced with black recruits doing bare-chested exercises under the orders of a white colonel, Abbas triggers, and the world wakes up”, comments, in the album, his son Hamish Crooks.
A journalistic and historical legacy
The collection offers yet other testimonies. “His son and Melisa Teo, his widow, have agreed to comment on his work and pay tribute to him, as has his photographer friend Ian Berry. Their views on the person that Abbas was and his practice of photography complement each other to paint a luminous portrait of him,” aptly describes Jeanne Poret.
Added to their memories is the analysis of the photographer’s work by the Iranian activist Shirin Ebadi. Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, she weaves the link between her photos of the time and the way her heirs immortalize through their lens what is happening in the country today.
A courage that has been defended by the Reporters Without Borders association since 1985, which works for the freedom, independence and pluralism of journalism throughout the world. It is to this work that the profits made from the sale of the album will contribute. 100 photos for freedom of the pressfully donated to the association.