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 Stanley Greene, from the United States.
Stanley Greene. New York, April 2007. I will always remember our first appointment. I arrived at a café, near the studio where Stanley was working on the selection of his photographs for the Photo Poche book which was about to be published. His style astonished me: green bandana scarf on his head, silver rings at each finger. I had to interview Stanley about his job for a film I was writing. I was shy to meet him. Stanley told me he would spent an hour with me, we spent the whole evening together. We had so much to exchange. We had so much in common. Between cinema, war, humanity and New York. First portrait. Stanley invited me in the « kibboutz » of the reporters in Brooklyn, where he was living. We became friends. I had the feeling he took me under his wing. Since then I have photographed Stanley a lot, whose distinguished style and legendary photogenic quality inspired me. Between modesty, respect and admiration. It took me a lot of time to « put » Stanley, whose work I admire, « back to the wall ». I wanted so much for him to like his portrait, I could not move into doing it for « Sarajevo generation ». Then in October 2014, while Stanley was staying at my place in Paris between two trips, I moved on. Stanley went along with my face to face disposal with elegance and benevolence. Several walls called us, even the one of the old city of Paris, Lutèce, I kept the one in front of the Art and Archeology Institute facing the Observatory Gardens. I caught the eyes of Stanley Greene behind his dark glasses.
Stanley Greene wrote about this war photograph: “Aleppo was a pure hell, a blast every few seconds when the old city, a UNESCO world heritage site, was overwhelmed by fire. The rebels are often just in their teens, and they have eyes so transparent, so empty that you can look through them, and see the rubble that is behind. They roam around the devastation in T-shirts with a Kalashnikov, a pair of Bart Simpson socks under their military boots. They are the new lords of Aleppo. Now they have experienced power, they won’t be insignificant again as they were under Assad who is still in power.”
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
