Every Friday, for 10 consecutive weeks, The Eye of Photography is publishing one of the 34 portraits of war photographers taken by Alizé Le Maoult. This week, we honor the regretted Catherine Leroy, from France.
Catherine Leroy, French born in 1945, died in 2006 in Los Angeles. In 1966, she traveled to Vietnam to cover the war. She is incorporated in the 173rd Airborne to attend the Junction City operation, and is wounded during combat. In 1968, captured by the Vietcong army, she is allowed to take pictures during her detention. She managed to escape with her pictures that were published in Life. She covered the war in Somalia, Afghanistan, Libya, Iran, Iraq and Lebanon. In 1976, she became the first woman to receive the Robert Capa Gold Medal Award for her pictures of battles in Beirut.
She was the first woman who was accredited during the Vietnam war in 1966, the first woman who received the Robert Capa Gold Medal Prize. I wanted this great photographer be part of my series of portraits. But how? She died from cancer July 7th 2006 in Los Angeles. I looked for some portraits of her which I could photograph “straight in the eyes”. The missing ones need to have the same place as the living ones in my series. They all are the timeless witnesses of our History. Taking an archive image and turn it into a current-day photography was what I was wanted. This emblematic portrait of Catherine Leroy, ready to jump from an helicopter during the Vietnam war, was an evidence to me. I think she is beautiful in her paratrooper suit with her cameras, and more I liked what this photography means. Who is the author of this picture ? Some say that a G.I. took it. Or an anonymous photographer friend. She was looking towards the objective, sine qua non condition to be part of this portraits series. The Catherine Leroy Dotation gave me a scan as high as possible in order to do a big print. And I took her to Burgundy to the Castle of Sauvage. Savage… I thought it sounded well for Catherine Leroy. With her tawny shades, I looked for a wall whith fiery colors. And at the sunset, I looked at her straight in the eyes, and I did her portrait, back to the wall, like the others.
Catherine Leroy wrote about this war photograph: “Not far from me a Marine falls to the ground. Voices yelling over the unbearable noise of automatic firearms call for help. A male nurse manages to crawl to reach the wounded person in the awful din. He takes his helmet off, leans over him and tries to listen to his heart. The heart no longer beats. Then the male nurse just remains there, lost in a nightmare.”
Alizé Le Maoult
Alizé Le Maoult, Through their eyes…
From October 1 to December 31, 2016
Musée de la Grande Guerre
Rue Lazare Ponticelli
77100 Meaux, France
