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40 ans de photojournalisme, Génération agences, by Michel Setboun and Marie Cousin #16

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This image is taken from Michel Setboun’s third book about agencies. Eighty reporters were chosen to comment on one iconic image  taken during their careers. The image we’re publishing today is a picture by Judah Passow.

I spent four weeks in Fahme, a Palestinian village just outside of Jenin, in the West Bank. Every man there has collaborated with Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service. This drives the women mad with rage, since it eats away at the basics of village life. However, not one of them is “pro-Israel.” The Shin Bet’s officers have largely forced them to collaborate through blackmail and threats of long stays in Israeli prisons. All of them are paid for their work. Consequently, so long as they escape, they enjoy an above-average standard of living. The collaboration is a troublesome and dangerous system leaving no room for ideology or romanticism. I spoke all morning with this old woman. Her husband and her son are collaborators. The son pulls up in a car in the courtyard of the house and parks right next to us. He looks at us for a minute, then reaches behind him and draws a handgun. He gives it to his mother and suggests that the picture will be better with the weapon. Suddenly, the old woman’s expression changes. She erupts in anger and berates her son. And I watch the whole thing through my viewfinder. I know that there’s a story to tell. The woman starts cursing her son, waving her arms and raising her cane, like some kind of biblical condemnation. Click. I take the picture. And I know that I got my photo. It symbolizes the feeling of these women who want but one thing: to put an end to the cycle of violence destroying their lives and families.

Interview by David de Araujo

http://www.judahpassow.com

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