Exhibition in Rouen: Ukraine, the war before the war in pictures
Self-taught photographer from Rouen, Wilfried Collé does not (yet?) make it his job. This did not prevent him, from 2014 and the Maidan Revolution, from traveling across Ukraine on several occasions, and more particularly the Donbass region. “It was like an impulse. I was at home in 2014 and saw history being written before my eyes on television. I decided to go to kyiv,” he says today, sitting at one of the tables in the Factory in Rouen (Seine-Maritime), a place dedicated to coworking which hosts its first real exhibition, entitled “This is the way we live”, thirty-six photos taken between 2014 and 2018 and which are nevertheless more than ever at the heart of the news .
Accompanied by a photographer friend who was more experienced in photo reporting, he first covered the events in Maïdan Square, remembering the excitement that reigned at the time. Violence too. On one of the walls, the photograph of a funeral procession, taken at eye level, catches the eye. “There were almost every day. For the protesters, it was a way of publicly honoring their dead. The experience marks him, but he is not satisfied with the result obtained. “I have no ambition to report on this war. The geopolitical analysis, the ins and outs of the conflict, I leave that to others. What interests me, since I started photography, are people, what their faces express. The eyes never lie…”.
He therefore decided a few months later to return there, further east, and witnessed the beginning of the war in the Donbass, between pro-European and pro-Russian Ukrainians. Determined, he manages to obtain accreditation to move around more easily, crosses the front line several times, and discovers villages and their inhabitants at the heart of a war that only interests a handful of reporters. He also discovers the fear, the bombardments, the soldiers who do not hesitate at the pointer of the barrel of their rifle. He even misses being abducted. A way to make his mark… “I was probably not prepared enough… Looking back, I tell myself that I was lucky. And that’s why I decided to come back to better surround myself.
The contacts made in the early days allowed him to work from 2018 with Dimitri, a fixer in the jargon of reporters, who served as his translator and facilitated his contacts with the local population and the authorities. It was at this time that he undoubtedly produced his most beautiful portraits. Those of elderly people, with marked faces, with wrinkles that testify to the trials they have gone through and with striking looks. “Each time, it’s a meeting. I take the time to listen to their story, to take advantage of their testimony, to share a moment of intimacy… And then, at some point, we send that we can take the photo. »
Today, the all-out war that began last February 24 resonates differently for him. On his phone, an application allows him to follow the advance of Russian troops almost in real time. With some localities, memories that flow. “Mariupol, I went there in 2018. Seeing this field of ruins today seems unreal”.
In September, Wilfried Collé plans to return to Ukraine for a more ambitious project that will combine writing and images. And in the meantime, for the last day of his exhibition which ends on May 13, he has planned to organize on Friday evening, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., a sale of each of his photographs. It goes without saying that all funds will be reserved for a charity to help the Ukrainian people.