Miquel Dewever-Plana, a photographer at the Agence VU’, and the journalist Isabelle Fougère traveled to Guatemala to document the gang violence there. Their work resulted in the books Alma and L’Autre Guerre, (available in French from Editions Bec en l’air) and a web documentary.
ALMA
At a very young age, Alma joined one of the gangs spilling blood daily across Guatemala City, driven by an élan vital whispering to her that it was better to kill than be killed. So Alma killed and took part in rape and extortion. She got beaten up and went to prison, a woman in the middle of a group of heavily armed young warriors, tattooing her body and erasing her femininity. Her choices caused her lose to a child and her ability to walk, following an assassination attempt when she tried to leave the gang.
Photographs: Miquel Dewever-Plana
Text: Isabelle Fougère
Le bec en l’air éditions.
30 color photos
112 pages – 13 x 20 cm
ISBN 978-2-916073-87-3
14.90 €
L’AUTRE GUERRE (The Other War)
The other war raging in Guatemala today is undeclared. It has claimed as many victims as the armed conflict of the 1980s. This country of 14 million people has become one of the most dangerous in the world, with 18 murders per day, 98% of which are never investigated.
Youth from disadvantaged areas join the maras, the ultra-violent gangs that terrorize the population. Widespread corruption, trafficking in drugs, humans and weapons, alcoholism, incest… So many evils that result from poverty, unemployment and families destroyed by war and immigration.
Photography and Text: Miquel Dewever-Plana
Le bec en l’air éditions
135 color photos
296 pages – 15 x 20 cm
ISBN 978-2-916073-92-7
36 €
Miquel Dewever-Plana
A photojournalist of Catalan origin and a member of the Agence VU’, Miquel Dewever-Plana lived in various Mayan communities in Mexico and Guatemala between 1995 and 2000. He documented the Mayan genocide perpetrated by the Guatemalan army in the 1980s, for which he was awarded the 2008 prize for Journalism & Human Rights at the Festival de Gijón. His time spent in the Chiapas with the Lacandon forest people led to his book Hach Winik (2009, Bec en l’air). In 2010, he was awarded the Getty Images Grant for Editorial Photography (New York) in order to continue his work on violence in Guatemala.
