Since President Felipe Calderon declared an all out war on the narco-traffickers in December 2006, Mexico has been plunged into a real civil war conflict. The war declared on drug lords caused unprecedented outburst of violence in the whole country. Under pressure to keep their lucrative routes, the traffickers are fighting both among themselves, and against Mexican Federal forces. The conflict has already cost the lives of 26,000 people: narcos, policemen and civilians.
In 2008 the photographer Jérôme Sessini started the Mexican project: a dive into the drug cartels war in Mexico. This compelling reportage, lasting two years, is a valuable document about the most dangerous cities in the country: Culiacan, Tijuana and especially Ciudad Juarez.
In 2010 this work was awarded the F Award with the mention: “Jérôme Sessini’s ongoing exploration of drug-related violence in Mexico at the U.S. border is remarkable for its sustained engagement with an increasingly alarming and dangerous reality, for its attention to concrete particulars, and for its ambition to convey the scope and complexity of the conflict.”
F award, the International Award for Concerned Photography is a creation of Fondazione Forma per la Fotografia, Milan, founded by Contrasto.
“Sun at its height, dust, insufferable heat, a soldier approaches the wire netting, a list in his hand. One by one, he coldly recites the names of the victims. Woman faint. Cries of suffering, tears, bodies embracing. The soldier pushes his contempt further by providing the details of the deaths.The women remain seated in the dust, overwhelmed, silent, a child’s hand resting on their shoulder the only comfort. Heavily, they get up and return alone to their distant neighbourhoods. A sad daily routine interrupted by death.” (Jérôme Sessini).
Jérôme Sessini
Jérôme Sessini built up a passion for photography, discovering American documentary photography through books shown by a friend, a photographer. He initiated his own practice, shooting people, landscapes and daily lives of those around his native Eastern France (with Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander, Mark Cohen and Eugene Richards in mind). In 1998, although nothing predicted he would turn to journalism, Sessini arrived in Paris. Gamma photo agency gave him the opportunity to cover the ongoing conflict in Kosovo.
Sessini has since covered most of the international news events: Palestine, Iraq (from 2003 to 2008), Aristide’s fall in Haiti (2004), the conquest of Mogadishu by the Islamic militias and the war in Lebanon (2006).
Sessini’s work is immediately acknowledged internationally, and published by prestigious newspapers and magazines among which, Newsweek, Stern, Paris-Match as well as Le Monde and the Wall Street Journal.
His photography also leads to single exhibitions at the Visa Photo Festival in Perpignan, at the Rencontres d’Arles, the Bibliothèque nationale François-Mitterrand, as well as with the French Ministry of Culture.
He joined Magnum Photos in July 2012.
The wrong side – Living on the Mexican border : Jérôme Sessini
Contrasto Books
90 images
19 x 25 cm
176 pages
35€
September 2012
The wrong side : Jérôme Sessini
• Screening on September 5th evening
Camp Santo
66000 Perpignan – France
• Book signing on September 6th, 4pm
Librairie La Poudrière
rue Rabelais
66000 Perpignan – France
• Exhibition in november 2012
Fondazione FORMA per la Fotografia
Piazza Tito Lucrezio Caro 1
20136 Milano – Italie
