Born in Bogotá in 1963, Julián Lineros began working as a photographer at the age of twenty-eight. As a photojournalist, he contributed to both Colombian magazines and the international press. With accreditation from the Gamma-Eyedea agency, he covered the release of Ingrid Betancourt, and his photos appeared in magazines like Elle and Paris Match. In 2002 he was awarded the Simón Bolívar Prize for journalism.
The series exhibited here shows the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) training in the jungle. This far-right militia recruits children from Choco, one of the country’s poorest regions. Sworn enemies of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the AUC is deeply involved in arms and drug trafficking.
“My first assignment was for a newspaper in the Arauca region on the Venezuelan border. At that time tensions were running high between the government and the leftist guerrillas of the FARC and National Liberation Army (ELN). The wild, mountainous terrain and manipulation of information by the various belligerent factions means that, despite the war being in the news for forty years, images remain rare and don’t tell you much. My particular thing is the portrait. I work in colour, use standard 50 and 80 mm lenses and pay close attention to composition. My photos also aim, however, to create an awareness of the vulnerability of people in Colombia such as peasants, workers, policemen, guerrilla fighters, paramilitary groups and the indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities. I consider photos as information, but I bow to the Colombian rule: no names, place names or dates, so as not to put people’s lives in danger. I’d like to go and work somewhere else: after twenty years of assignments in my own country I’ve had enough of watching history repeat itself. Governments change, but not the situation. As if the war were part of the national heritage, like coffee and beauty queens.”
Françoise Huguier, curator
Text from the catalogue-book “Photoquai”, co-edited by Musée du Quai Branly- Actes-Sud
