Comics for All Ages: The Photographer

Guibert, Emmanuel, Didier Lefèvre, and Frédéric Lemercier. The Photographer: Into War-Torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders. First Second: New York, 2009. Print.

The Photographer is a graphic memoir/documentary put together by Didier Lefèvre that details his journey into Afghanistan. In 1986, he was hired to be a photojournalist documenting a trip into Northern Afghanistan on a Doctors Without Border MissionThis book details all of the people he met, the struggles they went through, as well as the entire journey process(getting ready, crossing the mountains, treating patients, and coming back). Lefèvre’s photographs combined with the thick-lined crude drawings illustrate all of the work the entire team went through to provide medical treatment and aid to a people who are involved in a tragic war.

Visual and textual style: photographs mixed with thick-lined illustrations, informative, gritty, cinematic, realistic, raw, expressive, historical, crude drawings, graphic

Potential readers/ appeal factors: documentary, war, photography, history, medicine, human rights, photojournalism, travel

Awards

• ALA Notable Books Winner
• YALSA Great Graphic Novel for Teens
• YALSA Popular Paperback
• Amazon.com Best Graphic Novel of the Year
• Eisner Award Nominee
• Eisner Award Winner
• Shelf Awareness Best of the Year
• Washington Post Best Books of the Year
• Won the Essentials of Angouleme Award in 2007
• Booklist Top Ten Graphic Novel
• Library Media Connection Best of the Best
• School Library Journal Best Adult Book for High School Students
• Texas Maverick Graphic Novels List
• Nominated for a 2010 Harvey Award for Best American Edition of Foreign Material
• Publisher’s Weekly starred review
• Booklist starred review
• Library Journal starred review
• Alan’s War, another novel by Emmanuel Guibert, was nominated for four Eisner Awards
• Emmanual Guibert French Comic’s Critique Association Award of “Grand Prix fe la Critique” for his piece L’enfance d/Alan

Other pertinent information

• Emmanuel Guibert has written many books, including The Professor’s Daughter, the Ariol graphic novels, Alan’s War: The Memories of G.I. Alan Cope, and the Sardine in Outer Space series.