Marc Riboud
Marc Riboud
Following his return from Asia in the sixties, Marc Riboud covered the battles for independence in Africa. He started with Ghana, the first country on the continent to free itself from European colonization. There, he was mesmerized by the sailors of Accra as they risked their lives unloading the shipments from boats kept at bay by the deadly tides surrounding the harbor. Following their work from another small craft, Marc Riboud was able to grasp their energy, their harmony and their courage. Read more
Afterwards, moved by the promised emancipation yet concerned with the suffering brought about by the often violent process, he visited Nigeria, Congo, Niger and Kenya.
In 1960, Marc Riboud traveled to Algeria to report on the ongoing armed conflicts. He was also there in 1962 to chronicle the important moments that marked the state's independence. His images, which were rarely published by French press at the time, are today recirculating with more impact and relevance than ever as the "Guerre d'Algérie" – called the "Guerre de Libération Nationale" in Algeria – continues to be a sore subject in our collective memory. Riboud knew how to keep a respectful distance with unfolding events. He captured, without using artifice, a people's march towards freedom.
Marc Riboud went on to cover conflicts in other parts of the world, but he returned to the continent in the 90s to document the end of the South African Apartheid.
