CENTRE INTERNATIONAL
DU PHOTOJOURNALISME
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Alizé Le Maoult
From an early age, Alizé has been immersed in photography. Her passion was born with her “talented amateur photographer” father, who transformed the family bathroom into a photo lab. First, as a privileged model for him, it was the cinema that enlisted him, very young, to take his first steps in front of the camera.
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After studying cinema in New York, Alizé collaborated with renowned directors such as Walter Salles, Balthazard Kormakur, Manuel Pradal, Jorge Navas and Elia Suleiman for the film "Divine Intervention" (Jury Prize at Cannes in 2002).
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The year 1995 is a key date. The cinema takes him to the war in Sarajevo for the filming of the film "The Perfect Circle" by Ademir Kenovic. This intense professional and emotional experience will inspire him later, the first part of the series of portraits of war photographers “What their eyes have seen / Generation Sarajevo…”. Alizé has extended this unprecedented project to other war photographers and new generations.
Her photographic work relentlessly accompanies her cinematographic trajectory around the world, she detaches herself from it, and tries to extract with photography the beauty and poetry that surrounds us.
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The human being, the city, nature are his recurrent and borderless fields of exploration. His visual universes are told in series: Reconciliation I & II (with Romain Léna); Pink Shanghai; Cuba Blues, White Washington, Serenity, Vibrations…
Alizé has exhibited in Paris, Sarajevo, Caen, Meaux and Verdun both in galleries and in museums or institutions.
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Currently Alizé Le Maoult is exhibiting her new series "Nights illuminated", at the Myriam Bouagal Gallery (Paris) until January 27, 2018.
Benedicte Kurzen / NOOR Images
Bénédicte Kurzen (born in France in 1980) began her career as an independent photographer in 2003 when she moved to Israel and covered news in the Gaza Strip, Iraq and Lebanon In 2004, she moved from reporting to news to a more documentary approach with a project on female suicide bombers and Palestinian widows in the Gaza Strip. This report is part of a collective project, “Violence against women”, in collaboration with Amnesty International and Médecins Sans Frontières. Bénédicte Kurzen has a master's degree in contemporary history from the Sorbonne, Paris; the subject of his thesis, “The Myth of the War Photographer”, encouraged him to choose the art of visual storytelling as a means of expression. For ten years, she has covered conflicts and socio-economic changes in Africa, and in particular in South Africa where she has documented the challenges facing post-apartheid society, with projects such as "Next of Kin", " The Boers' Last Stand” and “Amaqabane” on the lives of ex-combatants in the anti-apartheid struggle (the latter for the prestigious Joop Swart Masterclass in 2008). In 2011, she received a grant from the Pulitzer Center which allowed her to do a major report on Nigeria: "A Nation Lost to the Gods". His work has been presented at the Visa pour l’Image – Perpignan festival, in screening and in exhibition, and his reportage on Nigeria was nominated for the Visa d’Or in 2012.
In 2012, Bénédicte Kurzen joined the NOOR agency, and decided to settle in Lagos from where she could continue to cover Africa and especially Nigeria. His work resulted in a traveling collective exhibition, “Shine Ur Eye”, with Robin Maddock and Cristina de Middel, presented notably in London and Lagos. At the same time, she teaches journalism at the American University of Nigeria where she is an assistant lecturer.
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Find his report "Nigeria, a nation lost to the Gods" on the Photographic Fund:
Joao Silva
Joao Silva discovered photography in 1989 and began his career the following year at the Alberton Record, a small town newspaper in South Africa. In 1991, he was hired as a photographer by The Star newspaper in Johannesburg before being recruited as a freelance photographer by the Associated Press in 1994.
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In 1992 he won the Ilford South African Press Photographer of the Year award and in 1995 he was selected for the Jopp Swart Masterclass. Joao Silva has received many prestigious awards such as the World Press Photo and the Over Seas Press Club. He has twice been nominated for the New York Times Pulitzer Prize.
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In 1996, Joao worked as a freelancer for the New York Times and in 2000, after working regularly for Time in South Africa, he was awarded a contract.
In 2000, Joao Silva co-wrote the Bang-Bang Club with Greg Marinovich, an objective documentary of photographers who covered the news in South Africa at the end of apartheid.
In 2005, publication of a photographic book on Shi'ism in Iraq and the consequences of the US occupation of Iraq "In the company of God".
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Sent by the New York Times to Afghanistan, Joao Silva was seriously injured on 23 October 2010 while stepping on a mine. As a result of this accident, he suffered life-threatening injuries and both his legs were amputated.
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In September 2011, Silva became a photographer for the New York Times. On 9 December 2011, he returned to South Africa after 14 months of treatment at the Walter Red National Hospital Medical Centre.
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Joao Silva received several important awards. On 4 April 2011, the French Republic named him Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
On 15 March 2012, the Portuguese government awarded him the Order of Freedom medal, which honours people who dedicate their lives to the dignity of humanity and who fight for freedom.
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On 19 May 2012, Joao Silva received an honorary doctorate in "Art" from the Corcoran School of Arts and Design in Washington.
Joao Silva is a South African citizen. He was born in Lisbon, Portugal on 9 August 1966. He currently lives in Johannesburg with his family where he continues his rehabilitation.
© Geoffrey Berliner
Yuri Kozyrev / NOOR Images
Born in Russia in 1963, Yuri Kozyrev witnessed many events that shook the world. He began his career documenting the collapse of the Soviet Union, the last modern-day empire, capturing the rapid changes in the former USSR for the LA Times in the 90s. In 2001, Yuri began covering international news. He was in Afghanistan after September 11, 2001 and lived in Baghdad, Iraq between 2002 and 2009, even before the war. During those Iraqi years, he was a photographer for Time Magazine and traveled all over the country, photographing the different sides of the conflict.
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Arab Revolutions
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Since the beginning of 2011, Yuri has documented the "Arab revolutions" and their consequences in Bahrain, Yemen, Tunisia and especially in Egypt and Libya. He has received numerous awards for his photography, including multiple World Press Photo Awards, the OPC Oliver Rebbot Award and the ICP Infinity Award for Photojournalism. In 2008 he received the Frontline Club Award for his extensive coverage of the war in Iraq.
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His vast literature documenting the "Arab revolutions" has received wide recognition from the profession. “On Revolution Road” – about the revolts in Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen and Libya for Time magazine – won the 2011 Visa d’or at the Visa pour l’Image international photojournalism festival. At the Prix Bayeux-Calvados, his work “Dispatch from Libya” won the Trophy and the Public Prize. In 2012, his work was awarded at the World Press Photo Contest and he was named Photographer of the Year 2011 in the international Year in Pictures competition.
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Russia[s]
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Yuri's work has been widely exhibited. His most recent exhibitions are "Russia[s]", a unique showcase of Russia, exhibited with Stanley Greene in Paris at the Maison de la Photographie Robert Doisneau and the group exhibition "Revolutions Arabes" curated by Alain Mingam. Between 2011 and 2012, his work "On Revolution Road" was broadcast in ten different countries. In 2014 Yuri covered the conflict in eastern Ukraine and in 2015 the migrant crisis in Europe.
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He is a member of the Noor agency.
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Find his report "The paths of the revolution - Arab Spring" on the Photographic Fund
© Mari Bastashevsky