Victor Ferreira : The Legionnaire’s Eye
A former Chief Warrant Officer in the French Foreign Legion, Victor Ferreira traded the uniform for a camera, without ever leaving behind the world that shaped him. Portuguese by birth, French by choice, he spent nearly a quarter of a century at the heart of overseas operations – from Chad to Bosnia, from the Central African Republic to Côte d’Ivoire before deciding to tell, through images, what he had long experienced in his own flesh.
His gaze, almost surgically precise, focuses less on martial gestures than on the human imprint left by service. Where others might chase exoticism or spectacle, Ferreira captures silences, scars, tattoos, faces marked by waiting and memory. His series dedicated to legionnaires – La Légion dans la peau, Légionnaire, Ils ouvrent la voie reveal a fraternity often fantasized, here restored in its full physical and psychological density.
This passage from fighter to witness, from soldier to visual author, gives his work a singular force: it combines the eye of a seasoned field professional accustomed to extreme situations with the sensitivity of one who questions what he himself once embodied. In photographing legionnaires, he does not freeze icons but reveals lives, flaws, and identities in perpetual tension between myth and reality.
Thus Ferreira situates military photography in a hybrid space: neither pure documentation, nor simple tribute, but a work of memory and revelation, where humanity reclaims its place over the uniform. His journey attests that the Legion is not only told through weapons, but also through art an art where loyalty, sacrifice, and fragility finally find their rightful light.
Site Web : www.victorferreira.fr
Instagram : @victorferreira.fr
News: Participates in the 2025 edition of Moderne Art Fair, taking place from October 23 to 26, 2025, at Place de la Concorde in Paris, with the exhibition “La Légion dans la peau”, through which Victor Ferreira explores the tattoos of his fellow legionnaires. Signs of belonging or prayers engraved in the flesh, his images capture an intimate and silent bodily memory. Shot without staging, the series reflects a rare bond of trust and reveals stories of loyalty, solitude, and pride. The project was born from his meeting with Vincent Courcelle-Labrousse, lawyer and writer, who facilitated the connection with the fair.
Your first photographic trigger?
Victor Ferreira: During my stay in Djibouti in 1985, I photographed a young African girl holding a bottle of Orangina (I’ve kept the photo).
The image-maker who inspires you?
Victor Ferreira: Robert Capa.
The image you wish you had taken?
Victor Ferreira: The image of the first man on the moon.
The one that moved you the most?
Victor Ferreira: The napalm girl.
The one that made you angry?
Victor Ferreira: The photos of Srebrenica.
A key image in your personal pantheon?
Victor Ferreira: The photo I took of the bomb disposal expert who entered the Bataclan on 11.13.2015.
A photographic memory from your childhood?
Victor Ferreira: I only have one photo from my childhood: a school portrait.
The image that haunts you?
Victor Ferreira: One of my photos of a legionnaire tattooed with the words: “Comme toi j’ai souffert” (Like you, I have suffered)
The one that changed the world?
Victor Ferreira: The photo of Che Guevara captured in his hideout.
The one that changed your world?
Victor Ferreira: The photo of an emaciated polar bear drifting on a piece of iceberg.
With no budget limits, which work would you dream of acquiring?
Victor Ferreira: Van Gogh’s Starry Night, but it must remain in the museum.
In your view, what quality is necessary to be a good photographer?
Victor Ferreira: Generosity.
The secret to the perfect image, if it exists?
Victor Ferreira: Things only have value if shared, so there’s no secret, or maybe to shoot at 1/125.
The person you would like to photograph?
Victor Ferreira: A tattooed death row inmate in the US.
An indispensable photo book?
Victor Ferreira: The one from my vacation in Mexico.
The camera of your childhood?
Victor Ferreira: A Kodak Instamatic my mother gave me when I was 16, and it’s still on my desk shelf.
The one you use today?
Victor Ferreira: A Canon 5D Mark IV.
Your favorite drug?
Victor Ferreira: Empathy.
The best way for you to disconnect?
Victor Ferreira: Cycling.
Your relationship with the image?
Victor Ferreira: To put into perspective rather than just juxtapose.
Your greatest quality?
Victor Ferreira: Persistence.
Your latest folly?
Victor Ferreira: My dog Aston.
An image to illustrate a new banknote?
Victor Ferreira: Trees.
The job you would not have liked to do?
Victor Ferreira: Banker.
Your greatest professional extravagance?
Victor Ferreira: Photographing mortar fire on Mount Igman in 1995, and more recently photographing bomb disposal experts in action in Mali.
Does photography have the power to change the collective perception of an event or an era?
Victor Ferreira: Of course the chosen angle can even alter the very truth of an event.
How do you perceive the influence of social networks on the way photographs are created and seen today?
Victor Ferreira: Is it still photography? Everyone can claim to be a photographer or journalist; it’s a different approach that can lead to misinformation and requires a critical eye.
An Instagram account to follow absolutely?
Victor Ferreira: Never just one – you need to cross perspectives from news accounts.
The last thing you did for the first time?
Victor Ferreira: Taking photos from the rooftop of Les Invalides a week ago.
What is a successful photo?
Victor Ferreira: A photo that shifts the gaze.
What interests you most in an image?
Victor Ferreira: The testimony it imprints.
What differences between photography and art photography?
Victor Ferreira: Validation by the passing of time.
The city, country, or culture you dream of discovering?
Victor Ferreira: Goa, India.
The place you never tire of?
Victor Ferreira: My sheepfold in the Pyrenees.
Your greatest regret?
Victor Ferreira: None.
Color or B&W?
Victor Ferreira: Color, because my life is in color.
Daylight or artificial light?
Victor Ferreira: Daylight.
In your view, the most photogenic city?
Victor Ferreira: London.
If God existed, would you ask Him to pose for you, or would you opt for a selfie with Him?
Victor Ferreira: If God existed, I would choose to make his portrait.
If I could organize your ideal dinner, who would be at the table?
Victor Ferreira: I don’t need anyone to organize my family meals.
The image that represents for you the current state of the world?
Victor Ferreira: The photos of the trenches in Ukraine.
If you had to start over?
Victor Ferreira: I would do it all the same.
The final word?
Victor Ferreira: Again!
