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The Photographer: Into War-torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders

The Photographer: Into War-torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without BordersAuthor: Emmanuel Guibert
Publisher: First Second
Category: Book

List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $11.51
as of 9/3/2010 22:55 MDT details
You Save: $18.44 (62%)



New (42) Used (19) from $9.92

Seller: bookcloseouts_us
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars 12 reviews
Sales Rank: 41412

Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st American Edition
Pages: 288
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.9
Dimensions (in): 11.7 x 9.4 x 1

ISBN: 1596433752
Dewey Decimal Number: 610.6010222
EAN: 9781596433755
ASIN: 1596433752

Publication Date: May 12, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Features:
  • ISBN13: 9781596433755
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

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  • Paperback - The Photographer: Into War-torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com Review
Book Description
In 1986, Afghanistan was torn apart by a war with the Soviet Union. This graphic novel/photo-journal is a record of one reporter's arduous and dangerous journey through Afghanistan accompanying the Doctors Without Borders. Didier Lefèvre’s photography, paired with the art of Emmanuel Guibert, tells the powerful story of a mission undertaken by men and women dedicated to mending the wounds of war.

Take a Look Inside The Photographer
These color panels and striking landscapes document Didier Lefèvre's journey across the Hindu Kush mountains with Doctors Without Borders (click each image to see the full page).

Mountain crossing with a caravan of horses and donkeys

Clinic in northern Afghanistan's Yaftal Valley






Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 12



5 out of 5 stars Painfully real, beautifully told   November 27, 2009
Mom and daughter
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This just sucks you in as you read. I'm not a fan of graphic novels, but this transcends that genre, melding photography with drawing to tell the story of a Doctors beyond Borders mission to Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation there. Not only a great story, but it provides useful background to current events.


5 out of 5 stars A powerful way to remember someone who did more than his part to help us understand the world   November 23, 2009
GraphicNovelReporter.com (New York, NY)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Beyond the headlines, behind the countless stories of war in Afghanistan, and what it means to live there now, lie millions of stories. Human stories, personal histories, and day-to-day activities that can be downright banal if not for the war, religion, and politics that constantly affect everything and everyone living there. There is always the question of how we got here, how Afghanistan reached this point in its history, and what we in North America don't understand about the country.

The Photographer does not exactly sum up everything, but that's not its job. Its role is a deceptively simple one. It's "merely" the story of a photographer, Didier Lefèvre, hired to document the work of several physicians working for Doctors Without Borders in Afghanistan in July 1986. To say it's informative is an understatement.

What Lefèvre experienced--beginning with adjusting to the heat, followed by learning to acclimate socially in this conservative country--is epic in scale, and the book's heft gives proper exposure to Lefèvre's life. The Photographer was originally published in Lefèvre's native France, where it's sold 250,000 copies. Now a worldwide phenomenon, its U.S. release is an event, as it should be. The story deserves it. Lefèvre deserves it.

It's hard to describe what Lefèvre went through in a short synopsis. He returned with 4,000 photos, substantially fewer teeth and less body weight, and a severe case of exhaustion. In the book, he goes through a cute "initiation" from the doctors, earns their trust and respect, and then becomes part of this culture and society that is at once so fascinating and so foreign to him.

The thousands of photos Lefèvre took remained unpublished for the most part for decades after his return. It was his stories of his time there that got the most airing, but mostly only for his friends. One of those friends, Emmanuel Guibert (Alan's War), became the conduit for creating The Photographer, and the book is richer for it. Guibert has a knack for lending his subtle pencils to true life stories, and the way his artwork seamlessly blends in with Lefèvre's photographs is brilliant. That's in large part due to the stellar work of designer Frédéric Lemercier.

An afterword to The Photographer gives an update on the key players of the story, which is a thankfully thorough explanation for readers, who will inevitably be left craving more. Lefèvre was indeed someone whose eyes opened up new insights for others. That he shared them in this remarkable book is a wonderful statement about his life and a powerful way to remember someone who did more than his part to help us understand the world a little bit better.

-- John Hogan



5 out of 5 stars Most prized book   October 9, 2009
Christian R. Burger (Chicago, IL)
The Photographer is without a doubt within the top ten books of my collection. I have recently become a fan of the graphic novel and consider this among its best expressions. If you are not yet a fan, don't let that put you off. True, it is more than graphic novel. The blending of what must be award winning pictures from Afghanistan with the carefully drawn characters and situations makes this book compelling and fun to read. It may be trite to say, but you do feel like you are there, something hard to achieve with straight narrative.

The story is a simple one, of a caravan moving through remote regions of the war torn country to deliver medical supplies and aid. What could have been told in essay form or as a short memoir and succeeded well enough became a timeless lens on a special place and journey.

There are photographs of the men (and one important woman) who make the dangerous trip. In the beginning, you see the secret handshake as they negotiate for their pack animals. This is but one small example of the wonders in this volume.

Giving this book five stars felt a little unfair...it deserves six...as do the men and women of Doctors Sans Frontiers.



4 out of 5 stars An amazing adventure.   August 18, 2009
Cindy Solorzano Lopez (Long Beach, NY USA)
This is a beautiful story. The images, pictures, colors make for the most intense movie ever and the story is Afghanistan as seen by Didier and not by politicians or sentimentalists.
Great translation as well.



5 out of 5 stars The Bookschlepper Recommends   August 15, 2009
Jean Sue Libkind (Philadelphia)
The Photographer: Into War-Torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders by Didier Lefèvre (the photojournalist), Emmanuel Guibert (the graphic artist) and Frederic Lémércier, translated from the French. A creative solution to a problem: what do you do with reels of stunning photos from the Russian-Afghan war after the talented photographer has died? Answer: use his proof sheets and journal notes and supplement them with graphic panels. This combination memoir of a naïve young man's first trip to the battlefield and his excellent and candid photos of DWB in action are augmented by "comic-strip" panels to fill in the blanks in the adventure. It works extremely well. It is, moreover, a good story that also deepens our understanding of Afghanistan while highlighting the modus operandi of dedicated NGO medical personnel in a war zone. Didier is young and innocent, and, thus, brave. He sets out to return from the field alone. He is kidnapped, robbed, close to death, in desperate straits before a local chieftain saves him. A dramatic story, well told. And, now that bloggers are running around the world reporting on trouble spots, this should be required preparatory reading so they don't blunder across boundaries and become the news themselves.

Showing reviews 1-5 of 12


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