In 2006, French photographer Véronique de Viguerie was the sixth woman to win the Canon Female Photojournalist Award, for her project on Communist Militiawomen in Nepal.
Véronique de Viguerie is 28 years old. French by birth, she studied photography in England before becoming a freelance photojournalist in 2004. Her work includes reports from Pakistan, and a number of in-depth reports on Afghanistan, a country she first visited for a newspaper assignment in 2003. In 2005 she narrowly escaped death in a suicide bombing on a Kabul café – the man sitting next to her was killed outright. Her work has been published in Newsweek, The New York Times, LIFE, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, Le Monde and Libération.
I haven't found her website, but some of Véronique's brilliant photographs appear in a World Press Network slideshow whose link is at the end of this post. I want to highlight the remarkable photograph (above) of Bibi Zorak and her husband Zahir Khan. The story behind this picture (it's #10 in the slideshow) is incredibly touching. It underscores how Afghan-Islamic tribal culture can be compassionate to widows (getting married to one's brother-in-law after the death of the husband, ensures the survival of widows), and humanizes people whom we know very little of.
Another stunning photograph in the slideshow is a close-up of an Afghan woman's face covered in a burqa. The eyes appear through the burqa's mesh, and tell the whole story...don't they?
No question about it, de Viguerie is an enormously talented and sensitive photojournalist, with a stellar career ahead of her.
Véronique de Viguerie's Afghanistan
