Noël Quidu : « And God created war ! »

In the course of three decades, I have witnessed how Yugoslavia disintegrated, how Africa was torn apart by ethnic conflict, how the Middle East went up in flames, how Chechnya fell into ruin, how radical Islamism from Afghanistan to Syria erected a backward-looking terror regime in the name of God. Across the worlds: fires, gun shots, cries, dead bodies and tears. Everywhere barbarity, fear, summary executions, and the condemned crying for mercy. The scenes are the same on all continents:
People fleeing, camps of displaced persons , blocks of flats gutted by bombs, women and children crowding in shelters. History repeats itself. But History with all its bloodthirsty extremes must not repeat itself.

With my photographs I always strive to present what happens realistically. My work is not in the service of any project, religion or specific interests. It is solely the tragic nature of human existence that I want to make visible in my photographs. They are the disconcerting documentation of human indignity. Tell of war means also show the faces of those whose suffering remains hidden, those who, even in their exhaustion, desperately try to keep up a vestige of hope."
Noël Quidu

Born in France in 1956 in Saint-Mandé, he started photography at the age of 19, leaving alone, hitchhiking, armed with his camera, in Africa "to discover the world".
At 20, he became an assistant in an advertising studio and, one year later, joined the Interpress agency. He then devoted himself mainly to portraits and film shoots.

The history of humanity attracts him, and the war is a focus. It is only in 1988 with his entry in the Gamma agency, that he will be able to fully exercise his profession of photojournalist. Since then, he has been able to give his point of view on many controversial conflicts in contemporary history with his images.
Freelance photographer since 2009, Noël Quidu continues his photographic work in collaboration with major magazines that show him an unfailing confidence.

In 2004 he exhibited his work in China at the Pingyao Festival and in 2006 at the War Photo Limited in Dubrovnick.
In June 2006, he also participated in two collective exhibitions, one at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and the other on the gates of the Jardin du Luxembourg. His photos have been projected and exhibited several times at the Visa pour l'Image festival in Perpignan.
Noël Quidu has been awarded three times at the World Press Photo, for his reports: Fall of Milosevic in Belgrade (2000), Civil War in Ivory Coast (2002), and Civil War in Liberia (2003). He also received the Grand Prix Jean-Louis Calderon of the Angers Festival, the 2nd Prize of the SCAM and the 2nd Prize of the war correspondents of the Bayeux Festival. In 2004, he was nominated for the Care International Prize for Humanitarian Reporting.