Neutral and detached: these are often the adjectives used to describe pictures by photojournalist Luc Delahaye. When he covers current events of armed conflicts (Lebanon, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Chechnya or more recently, Libya) his approach is consistently direct: the photographer’s presence gives way to his subject. The image Mort d’un mercenaire (2011) thus shows, with no apparent compassion, the last moments of a man from the Gaddafi forces, tucked away in a courtyard away from the fighting. In his more personal projects, Delahaye produces long-term series dedicated to social issues. The book Portraits/1 (1996) presents a series of faces of homeless people taken in a photobooth, while Winterreise (2000) evokes Russian milieus stricken by the economic crisis. Always in large formats, his photos offer a view that is decidedly detached, but that is systematically counterbalanced by a powerful sense of dramatic intensity.

Born in 1962, Luc Delahaye worked from 1986 for the Sipa Press agency and became a war reporter. In 1994, he joined the Magnum agency and Newsweek magazine. From 2001, he devoted himself entirely to his personal work and left the Magnum agency in 2004. He won many prizes, including the prestigious Robert Capa prize in 1992 and in 2002.