Sarah Caron published two books about Pakistan in 2010. « Pakistan, land of the pure », a small book full of major pictures and « Pakistan à vif » (Pakistan on the edge), a long photo essay about about a country that frightens and fascinates. The result of multiple trips for this photographer who works for some of the world’s most prestigious magazines.

The first time I met Sarah Caron was in Perpignan on Sunday, August 30, 2009 where she had come to Visa Pour l’Image to hang “Talibanistan”, a series of pictures of Talibans in what is now referred to as the “tribal zones”. The nations that stretch along the “Durand line”, a frontier drawn in 1893 by Sir Mortimer Durand and Abdur Rahman between Afghanistan and Pakistan. She had just returned from her fifth trip to the “land of the pure”. Today, as you read this text, she is somewhere, over there. I was immediately shocked by her personality, “a very shy girl”, very surprising for an adventurer of her standing. She was tired, thin, and not very talkative. During dinner with Jean-Pierre Pappis, the director of the Polaris agency that distributes her work, she modestly shared a few words about the difficulties for westerners to work in these forbidden zones, particularly if they are journalists, and even more so for women. Walking through these windy catalan streets on the way to dinner, as if to apologize in advance, Jean-Pierre Pappis discretely confided that “it was very hard”. Reading “Pakistan à vif”, I understood that her reality must have been far more dangerous than what I could possibly imagine during this summer festival.

Peshawar’s Parisian Gir.
Last December, right before the holidays, after having seen and read her books, I wanted to see Sarah Caron again. We had a rendez-vous at the Zimmer café, in Paris’ central place du Châtelet, far from Peshawar. At first, I barely recognized her. Was it her, the girl before me drinking a tea? She looked like she had just come out of an office, a pretty Parisian girl, like a business-woman. An anecdote would summarize her astonishing personality. Right in the middle of “talibanistan”. It was after midnight, she quickly had to leave this very dangerous zone. Her driver-fixer stopped in a local village and put a CF98 9mm pistol on her lap, saying “At this time, you shouldn’t run into anybody. If anyone should approach, or talk to you, it is not normal, so you shoot. It’s simple, no?” Time was moving very slowly. Her phone rang. Normal, in New York, people were at their desks. At the same time, Sarah saw a few shadows approaching from a 4×4…I don’t hear you very well said her editor on the other end of the line. “Is everything alright?” “Everything is fine” she answered briefly. When I mention this part of her book, she smiles, “Oh, I am so lucky to have work during these hard times when so many of my peers are struggling, I am not going to bother my picture editors with my problems.” In 2007, just prior to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Sarah Caron was with her in Lahore at Senator Khosa’s villa where she was doing a portrait for Time Magazine. After the photo shoot, she was invited to stay for dinner. During the meal, they learned that Benazir Bhutto, and all those gathered, were put under house arrest by President Musharraf. A world exclusive! The end of December that same year, Sarah Caron had just finished an assignment for the “New York Times Magazine”, Jean-Pierre Pappis told her that she could return to Paris for the holidays, like her peers. But she wanted to attend Benazir Bhutto’s last meeting in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007. “Yes, you might be right, but be careful… work with a telephoto lens…” advised “Jipi”. The “blast” occurred at 5:25pm, a shooting had delayed her driver. She went directly to the Rawalpindi General Hospital where she took amazing pictures of the injured, the dead, and their close family members, before being dragged away and chased, nearly lynched by a wildly enraged crowd.

An Excellent Bordeaux Vintage

“Sarah Caron? Of course I remember her! So talented!” exclaimed Hugues Vassal, photographer of Edith Piaf and co-founder of the Gamma agency. “A friend told me to go see her exhibition in Bordeaux. It was a long time ago… I immediately saw her discerning eye and sent her to Gamma to see Floris de Bonneville” the old master commented emotionally. “I am so touched that she remembers me. She was leaving for Cuba. I gave her a few old tips.” In 1994, Sarah Caron was working with black and white in Cuba. It was her first “grand reportage” since graduating with a degree in Hispanic civilization. She was born in 1970. “I was very much a socio-anthropologist at the time” she comments. “I wasn’t yet a journalist, but, as a child, my parents took me to museums all the time. I loved that. I had visual training that way.” “For three years, I “did Cuba” for Gamma, then I met Christian Caujolle in 1998, and I went to VU’. I went back to freelance work. Spent one year at Cosmos, one year at Corbis, one year at Getty before Jean-Pierre Pappis called me. We started working together four years ago, and everything is going well since”. Perpignan, 2009, after dinner, on our way back to the hotel, she explained that she knew she could count on her agency. “When we have a problem on the other side of the world, it is very important” she added with her characteristic discretion. Michel Puech

Book Pakistan / Land of the pure by Sarah Caron, introduction by Alain Genestar et postface by Dimitri Beck (French-English) – Jean-Claude Gawsewitch Publications 2010 Le Pakistan à vif by Sarah Caron, introduction by Caroline Mangez – Jean-Claude Gawsewitch Publications 2010