The Photographer by Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefevre, Frederic Lemercier, translated by Alexis Siegel. New York: First Second, 2009. ISBN: 9781596433755

  Annotation: Beautifully illustrated, relates the author’s experiences while on a photojournal assignment in Afghanistan, to document the experiences of Doctors Without Borders

  Media: some b&w, some digitally coloured, a combination of photographs and comic-book style drawings

  Rating: 5Q/5P

  Curricular connections: History, Social studies, Afganistan, Doctors Without Borders, Photography, Photojournalism

  Grade level: Middle School, High School

lss  August/2009 

TOP TEN The Photographer: Into War-Torn Afghanistan With Doctors Without Borders, by Emmanuel Guibert. First Second, 2009.

Summary: The story of a photographer with a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) mission to Afghanistan in the 80s is told through his original photographs and Guibert's cartoons.

Analysis: I was expecting this to be Yet Another Depressing Historical Book, but it isn't. It's actually really inspiring, and both Lefevre and the MSF staff keep up a running banter of gallows humor that serves to lighten even the darker points. The MSF team is lead by a female doctor whose incredible skill at both medicine and intercultural relations puts her in an interesting position among the Afghans -- she's the leader and dresses as a man by their standards, so the men will talk to her, but she's female, so she can also join in the local "girl talk" when the men aren't around. Her insights into the women's culture and efforts to gain a voice in their society are fascinating to see from a Western perspective. The team runs into corrupt police, Russian military helicopters, recalcitrant livestock, and a whole variety of medical issues to help with (most amusing: a white-haired man comes in with the translator, who explains that the man says that he must be ill, because he used to always be the first to every summit, but now he comes in third or fourth. "Well, how old is he?" "He doesn't know." "Tell him that he's old and we don't have a cure for that.") The Arabic-script text is penned by none other than Marjane Satrapi.

Illustrations: Black and white photography alongside digitally-colored cartoon panels. Guibert uses fairly thick lines.

Rating: 5Q/4P

Curricular connections: A high-school unit on Afghanistan, Doctors Without Borders (or similar aid organizations), or war photography. It's particularly useful as a background to the current situation in Afghanistan, as this gives some sense of the history and culture of the region and the conflicts that had been going on previously. There's an excellent introduction to set the scene and explain the current conflict the MSF team is headed into.

--SLH