Pascal Maitre (also Pascal Maître) is a French photojournalist. He was born in 1955 in

Buzançais Buzançais (; oc, Buzancei; la, Busentiacum or ) is a commune and town in the French department of Indre, administrative region of Centre-Val de Loire. It is situated northwest of Châteauroux, the nearest large city, and is near the Brenne r ...

, France, and now lives southwest of Paris, France.Evans, Adrian. “Pascal Maitre Biography.” ''Panos Pictures''. https://www.panos.co.uk/photographer/pascal-maitre/. Retrieved March 23, 2021. For more than 30 years he has taken photographs in over 40 countries in Africa, and worked in Afghanistan, South America, Russia, the Middle East, Latin America and numerous other regions. Each year, he makes about 10 or 15 trips to Africa, which is the continent on which he photographs the most. His photographs have been published in

GEO Geo- is a prefix derived from the Greek word ''γη'' or ''γαια'', meaning "earth", usually in the sense of "ground or land”. GEO or Geo may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''GEO'' (magazine), a popular scientific magazine ...

Le Figaro ''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French newspapers of reco ...

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...

Paris Match ''Paris Match'' () is a French-language weekly news magazine. It covers major national and international news along with celebrity lifestyle features. History and profile A sports news magazine, ''Match l'intran'' (a play on ''L'Intransigeant' ...

L'Express ''L'Express'' () is a French weekly news magazine headquartered in Paris. The weekly stands at the political centre in the French media landscape, and has a lifestyle supplement, ''L'Express Styles'', and a job supplement, ''Réussir''. History ...

Stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Ori ...

, Figaro Magazine,

The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine Supplement (publishing), supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted man ...

and many others.

Career

Maitre was born into a family of blacksmiths in the small village of

, France.Newman, Jesse. “An African Journey.” November 1, 2012. Lens Blog. ''New York Times.'' https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/an-african-journey/. Retrieved March 25, 2021. He was gifted his first camera, a twins-lens

Rolleiflex Rolleiflex is the name of a long-running and diverse line of high-end cameras originally made by the German company Franke & Heidecke, and later Rollei, Rollei-Werke. History The "Rolleiflex" name is most commonly used to refer to Rollei's pr ...

, by his Aunt and Uncle. His uncle was an American soldier that had been stationed at a nearby naval base during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Later in life, he pursued an undergraduate degree in Psychology, but decided to discontinue his studies to learn more about and document France's

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council *Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

population. After a short stint in serving the French army by working in the military's photo lab, Pascal Maitre truly began his career in photojournalism in 1979 with the

Jeune Afrique ''Jeune Afrique'' (English: ''Young Africa'') is a French-language pan-African weekly news magazine, founded in 1960 in Tunis and subsequently published in Paris. It is the most widely read pan-African magazine. It is also a book publisher, unde ...

magazine. Working for a publication that analyzed and published African news, in his first assignment he worked to cover the Moroccan war with the

Polisario Front The Polisario Front, Frente Polisario, Frelisario or simply Polisario, from the Spanish abbreviation of (Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro), (in ar, rtl=yes, الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير الس� ...

. In 1984, Maitre joined Gamma Agency, where he documented Afghanistan while their population was fighting against Soviet occupation. He then went on to co-found the photo agency Odyssey Images in 1989.“Pascal Maitre.” ''MYOP''. http://www.myop.fr/photographer/pascal-maitre. Retrieved March 25, 2021. Throughout the 90's and 00's, Maitre continued to document politics, religious traditions, cultures, environments, and conflicts around the Middle East and Africa, working in Afghanistan 1996, Mogadishu in 2002, and various countries in Africa throughout each year. From 1994 to 2018, Maitre was a member of Cosmos Agency. Maitre is currently represented b
MYOP

Process

Pascal Maitre works to document situations in places of political unrest, religious war, poverty, and many other unstable cultural climates. Maitre stresses that he does not work alone, and that other people are vital to capturing the problem at hand. He dedicated a book to honor Ajoos Sanura, someone who was first Maitre's fixer, but became a dear friend. Because he is often in dangerous situations, his projects can last from 2 days to 2 weeks. As an example of his editing process, during his project ''Africa Without Electricity'', Maitre shot 20,000 photographs, then reduced them to 3,000, then cut to 500, then cut to 200. He utilized the full-frame low light capabilities of the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV and the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 II USM and Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM.

Notable Projects

In one of his most notable projects, ''Africa Without Electricity'', Maitre shot in nearly complete darkness as he worked to bring the public's attention of

energy poverty Energy poverty is lack of access to modern energy services. It refers to the situation of large numbers of people in developing countries and some people in developed countries whose well-being is negatively affected by very low consumption of ene ...

in Africa. For this two-year project, Maitre received a grant from the

French Development Agency The French Development Agency (french: Agence française de développement, AFD) is a public financial institution that implements the policy defined by the French Government. It works to fight poverty and promote sustainable development. This pub ...

to capture the story of people living in villages near

Porto-Novo Porto-Novo (Portuguese: "New Port", , ; yo, Àjàṣẹ́, ), also known as Hogbonu and Ajashe, is the capital of Benin. The commune covers an area of and as of 2002 had a population of 223,552 people. Situated on an inlet of the Gulf of Gu ...

, the capital of Benin in West Africa.Clark, David and Pendleton, Emma-Lily. “Light from darkness: How Pascal Maitre illuminated Africa’s electricity crisis.” ''Canon''. https://www.canon.co.uk/pro/stories/pascal-maitre-africa-without-electricity/. Retrieved March 23, 2021. This project won first prize in the 2018

London Business School London Business School (LBS) is a business school and a constituent college of the federal University of London. LBS was founded in 1964 and awards post-graduate degrees (Master's degrees in management and finance, MBA and PhD). Its motto is " ...

Photography Awards. ''Africa Without Electricity'' is one of Pascal Maitre's many notable projects, with others listed below in the Exhibitions and Publications sections, and recognized projects in the Awards section.

Awards

* 1986 and 1987: ''World Press Photo Contest'' * 2010: ''Photojournalism National Magazine Award'' for ''"''Shattered Somalia''"'' * 2011: ''La bourse FNAC d’aide à la creation photographique'' * 2013: ''Prix International Planète Albert Khan'' * 2015: ''Lifetime Achievement Visa d'or Award'' by ''

Le Figaro Magazine ''Le Figaro Magazine'' is a French language weekly news magazine published in Paris, France. The magazine is the weekly supplement of the daily newspaper ''Le Figaro''. History and profile The magazine is the first supplement of ''Le Figaro'' n ...

'' *2018: ''

Photography Award''

Exhibitions

* 8 personal exhibitions at Visa pour l'Image * 2 personal exhibitions at Maison Europeenne de la Photography in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

* Exhibition at

Naturhistorisches Museum The Natural History Museum Vienna (german: Naturhistorisches Museum Wien) is a large natural history museum located in Vienna, Austria. It is one of the most important natural history museums worldwide. The NHM Vienna is one of the largest museum ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

* Exhibition at

Geological Museum The Geological Museum (originally the Museum of Economic Geology then the Museum of Practical Geology), started in 1835 as one of the oldest single science museums in the world and now part of the Natural History Museum in London. It transfe ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

* Exhibition at The Arche de la Defense in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

*Exhibition at

Multimedia Art Museum Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as Text (literary theory), text, Sound, audio, Image, images, Animation, animations, or video into a single i ...

of Moscow in 2021

Publications

* 2000:
Mon Afrique: Photographs of Sub-Saharan Africa
* 2001: "Madagascar: Voyage dans un monde à part" - Pascal Maitre and Michael Stührenberg * 2006: National Geographic cover photo *2012:
Amazing Africa
- Pascal Maitre, Lois Lammerhuber, Jean-Luc Marty and Michael Stührenberg * 2017: "Baobob - The Magic Tree" *2017: ''When Light will Touch Africa'' *2018: ''Seulement Humains'' *2019:

- ''Sahel en Danger'', Paris Match- ''Baobab Citerne'', Figaro Magazine- ''Huile de Palme'', National Geographic- ''A Nation on the Edge'' *2020: Figaro Magazine- ''Accord de paix en Afghanistan'', Figaro Magazine- ''Afghanistant'', Paris Match- ''Enfants Sorciers''

References

External links

An African Journey
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Maitre, Pascal 1955 births Living people French photographers French photojournalists