Steidlville

There is only one frame left on the last roll of film in his old Rollei camera. When he presses down the shutter release the child dies. The slowly closing eyelids, the mouth halfway open as if in wonder, softly caressing sunlight: it is one of the most painful photographs reproduced in Michel Comte's book People and Places With No Name. During the last ten years Michel Comte has persistently covered the world's crisis areas. Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Jordan, Tibet, Sudan, Haiti, Nicaragua, Cuba, Brazil, Israel, Zaire are all topics of his photography: a story of the dark side of this planet. His photographs seem to show a wholly different age, another century. Time and time again Comte causes the viewer to realise that what he documented belongs to the here and now. He encounters people whose faces tell more about fear and hope than any spoken word ever could. There are only a few pictures showing wounded people but each speaks of the vulnerability of the soul. This carefully composed book has been made in co-operation with the International Committee of the Red Cross and shows in an impressive way what photo-reportage, even today, is still capable of conveying.