16-7-2023 (PARIS) Renowned French model turned war photographer, Marie-Laure de Decker, has passed away at the age of 75, her family announced on Saturday. After battling a long illness, she passed away in a hospital.
Born in Algeria during the time of French colonization, De Decker began her career as a model before venturing into the field of photography. In the late 1960s, she captured striking images of artists such as Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, and writer Philippe Soupault. Despite her relative lack of experience, she ventured into covering the Vietnam War and achieved remarkable success.
Reflecting on her early days, she wrote in her 1985 memoir, “I said to myself: people are going to see that I’m not a real photographer.” She recalled using an old Leica camera at the time and later realized its brilliance. Overcoming challenges as a female war photographer, she remarked, “If you’re a woman, you’re never taken seriously.” However, she also acknowledged an advantage, mentioning that in certain situations like South Africa, women were given a chance instead of being immediately targeted.
Moussa Faki Mahamat, the current chair of the African Union Commission, expressed his deep sorrow at her passing and paid tribute to her significant contributions. Taking to Twitter, he stated that her photographs “immortalized part of the history of Chad.”
Throughout most of her career, De Decker worked with the Gamma photo agency from 1971 until its closure in 2009. Unfortunately, their association ended on a sour note. When she requested her photos back, she only received the black-and-white prints and not the colored ones. Her legal attempt to recover them and assert her copyright for the digital versions of the photos was unsuccessful.
De Decker gained recognition for her captivating portraits of celebrities, including Catherine Deneuve, Charlotte Rampling, Serge Gainsbourg, Caroline of Monaco, and former French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing. The income from these high-profile photos helped fund her missions to conflict zones. She once remarked, “When you take photos of the poor, no one’s interested. You have to take photos of the rich to sell them.”
In 2013, her remarkable work in conflict zones earned her the Albert Kahn International Planet Prize. De Decker leaves behind two sons from her marriage to lawyer Thierry Levy.
