Veronique de Viguerie
Veronique de Viguerie is a photojournalist, single mother-of-two based in Paris. After a Master Degree in Law, fascinated by what was happening in Afghanistan, she disobeyed her parents, borrowed some money from her grand-mother and bought a one-way ticket to Kabul. In 2005, as she was filing pictures in a cybercafé in Kabul, a suicide bomber exploded himself. She was one of the survivors. She met, Taliban fighters multiple times over the years trying to understand why some men were ready to die and kill for an ideology. From that day, her pictures intend to give a face to the ones nobody wants to look at: the Taliban, pirates in Somalia, sicarias (women killers) in Mexico, oil pirates in the Niger Delta, Houthis in Yemen, MNLA in Mali, gangs in Brazil, Rebels of RCA etc. With her pictures she intends to break the clichés, the black and white vision. She shows us the grey shades, a more complex and vivid representation of the world and its conflicts.
In 2013, covered up in a niqab, she luckily escaped an ambush made by the Mujao in Northern Mali. In 2017, she was sequestered with the journalist for 2 weeks by Houthis who accused them of being spies because they were reporting on child soldiers and early marriages. In 2023, She was hold hostage in RCA by a warlord as she was covering the exactions committed by Wagner militia in the region. Her work is regularly published by Paris-Match, Time, Géo, Le Figaro, Elle, the Guardian, Marie-Claire etc.
She exhibited “Afghanistan, Insh’Allah” in Perpignan, Paris and Angers, “Yemen, The Hidden War” was exhibited in Bayeux, Paris and Brussels. She published some books “Afghanistan, Regards Croisés”, “Profession: Reporter”, “Carnets de Reportages du XXIe siècle”, “Yemen, la guerre qu’on nous cache », « Iraq Insh’Allah », in 2018, RSF chose 100 pictures of Veronique to defend the press freedom in their album. In 2011, she was starring an episode of « Witness » an HBO program, following the arrow boys in Sudan in their hunt for Joseph Kony. Among her awards she received a WPP, 2 Visas d’Or, 2 prizes at Bayeux Festival for Best War Reportage, Bartur Photo Award, Finalist of Anja Courage Award and more.
BOOKS:
2018, RSF Album, “100 pictures of Veronique de Viguerie for the Press Freedom”
2022 “Iraq Insh’Allah”
2021 “Yémen, the Hidden War”
2018 “Profession: Reporter”
2011 “Carnet de Reportage du XXIe siècle”
2006 “Afghanistan, Regards Croisés”
FILMS
2022 “Ukraine, women in war” Canal +
2021 “Au coeur du Régime Taliban” Canal +
2011 “Witness in South Sudan” HBO
EXHIBITIONS
2024 “La vie en Rose” Douai
2023 “Instants Suspendus” Austria
2022 “Instants Suspendus” Festival photo de la Gacilly
2022 “La vie en Rose” Didam, Bayonne
2021 “La vie en Rose” Urrugne
2018 “Yemen, the Hidden War” Visa pour l’Image, Perpignan
2011 “The Oil War in Niger Delta” Bayeux, festival des correspondants de Guerre, Bayeux
2009 “Afghanistan, Insh’Allah” Visa pour l’Image
