Serge Assier, the First of all Firsts – Triptych, part 1 by Thierry Maindrault

Yesterday, I introduced you to a small side of this astonishing character: the photographer Serge Assier. For this second part, I’m showing you what he calls his life as a entertainer. You understand, we are entering his world as a reporter photographer.

Our Rouletabille photographer, very much from Marseille, certainly seems a character that we suppose to be very imaginary. However, you can shake his hand, except that it will take half an hour as the ease of this seizer of the moment is inexhaustible.

As I mentioned previously, for this function, it is essential to be present in the right place (not five meters away) at the precise moment (not three minutes later). It is a set of networks of informants, both official and unofficial, even off the beaten track, that must be maintained. It is a life that knows neither nights nor days. These are always fast and non-restrictive means of transport. It is a permanently operational and fully equipped photographic laboratory. It is the total trust of the hierarchical chain in the newspaper editorial offices. So much for the material constraints of everyday life.

But this forgets the much more oppressive and redundant psychological constraints. It is the corpse of a judge executed in cold blood who has just collapsed on the asphalt. He’s an elected official, in plain sight, shot dead in his car. These are the dismantled and scattered bodies of passengers from a plane crash. These are the flames engulfing the highway. It’s the death of an intrepid friend live. All these images arrive frozen before our eyes; but, they still penetrate actively into the mind of the photographer.

Serge is one of those war correspondents in our daily lives. After fifty years of almost daily confrontations, he emerged almost unscathed, where many threw in the towel, before being knocked out for life.

Always being ready, holding on to shock, is very good; but, that’s not all! You also need to know how to take photographs (from A to Z); and what’s more, you have to be talented. This is the case for Serge. Look closely at his images, the moment of the shot is perfect, neither too early nor too late, he anticipates this unique moment so that his images tell us a story, so that they tickle our imagination. The composition is always remarkable, it allows us to linger on the unbearable to lead us to a few moments of reflection. The light is caught by the film at the right density to highlight the facts or to mute a voyeurism that would be inappropriate. The contrast is measured to challenge us, without overplaying emotion. Serge with his instinct and his professional automatisms always remains in the world of information, of information carrying, of the neutrality of information.

This constant race to enlighten others, which was a vocation and an honor yesterday, may seem outdated to us today. Our era circulates (at the speed of light) anything and everything, no matter how, without any control, any consideration or any respect. The machine, supposedly saving, is eating away at the brains of men.

Thierry Maindrault

www.sergeassier.com