She was fearless and sensitive. As a war reporter in Vietnam in the late 1960s, she also photographed artists such as Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp and Philippe Soupault. Photojournalist Marie-Laure de Decker has died at the age of 75 after a long illness in a hospital in Toulouse, the family told us this Saturday, July 15.
Originally from Bône (now Annaba in Algeria), she started out as a model before moving to the other side of the lens. Passionate about travel and Africa, she set out to photograph the Vietnam War without much experience. But she succeeds in her bet.
“This old Leica was a miracle”
“I said to myself: People will see that I’m not a real photographer, that I don’t have my own camera, that I only have this old Leica.” In fact, I knew later, this old Leica was a miracle”, She recounted in her memoirs in 1985.
It wasn’t easy being a war reporter – “If you are a woman, you will never be taken seriously” –on the other hand she said “There is an advantage to being a woman, as was the case in South Africa. We don’t kill you right away, we give you a chance.”
She will have a career at the Gamma agency from 1971 until its dissolution in 2009. The story will end badly in 2013: when she asks to recover her photos, she only gets the black and white photos, not the colors, and will lose a lawsuit to have his copyright on the digitized photos recognized.
“Talent” and “Courage”
That same year she became the fourth winner of the Planète Albert Kahn Prize, after Raymond Depardon, Marc Riboud and Stanley Greene, for which she was commended “His Talent and Courage” honored as “Tall and beautiful photographer, fragile and emotional, who shaves her head to go unnoticed among the GIs, capturing the absurdity and madness of men.”
She is also known for photographing the likes of Serge Gainsbourg and Caroline of Monaco. But President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing also learned about his presidential victory in 1974 on television: a cliché that has become historic.
She had two sons, one with lawyer Thierry Lévy.
