Abbas (photographer)
Abbas, real name Abbas Attar (Persian عباس عطار ) ( born 1944 in Iran ) is an Iranian- French photojournalist and a member of the photo agency Magnum Photos.
Life
The studied communication scientists emigrated at the age of 8 years in France. He began in 1964 for Algerian newspapers to photograph. On behalf of the International Olympic Committee he documented in 1968 among others the games in Mexico. From 1970-71 Abbas worked as a freelance photographer for Jeune Afrique. Numerous trips in crisis regions such as Biafra, Bangladesh and Northern Ireland should follow. 1974 joined Abbas at the photo agency Gamma and documented abuses in the Third World. International Abbas was known through photographs of the conditions of apartheid in South Africa and about the revolution in Iran.
Abbas left in 1981 and was gamma Magnum candidate; From 1983 he was an associate member of the Agency. From 1983 to 1986, he traveled to Mexico when he was researching for a novel, and he gave an exhibition of the corresponding book, Return to Mexico, journeys beyond the mask out, which contained a travel diary and its aesthetic definition for photography formulated. For Magnum he made numerous photo essays and in 1985 a full member of Magnum. In 1986, Abbas concentrated on fashion photography. From 1987 he began his large-scale documentary about the resurgence of Islam from China to Morocco and tried with religion in a suggestive imagery deal. This picture book Allah O Akbar, a journey through militant Islam resulted ( Phaidon, 1994), which drew increased attention since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 11 September 2001.
With a veritable paradigm shift Abbas concentrated from 2000 to the visualization of the strengths of Christianity. As a result, the book Faces of Christianity, a photographic journey (A. Abrams 2000) was equally successful as a traveling exhibition. One of his pictures, two girls dressed as angels, illustrated the cover story of the January issue of the GEO of the corresponding year. In Whose Name? The Islamic World after 9/11. ( Thames and Hudson 2009), drew a seven-year documentary journey through 16 countries and its previous experiences into account. From 2008 to 2010, Abbas traveled the world of Buddhism and published as a result of Les Enfants du lotus, voyage chez les bouddhistes ( De la Martinière, 2011). Since early 2011, he turned to the next world religion, Hinduism, even to this phenomenon to approach photographically.
About his photography Abbas himself said:
- Iran, la révolution confisquée, Clétrat, Paris 1980
- Retornos a Oapan, FCE Rio de Luz, Mexico 1986
- Return to Mexico, W.W.Norton 1992 in New York
- Allah O Akbar, voyages dans l' Islam militant, Phaidon, London 1994
- Allah O Akbar: a journey through militant Islam, Phaidon, London 1994
- Viaggio negli Islam del Mondo, Contrasto, Roma 2002
- Voyage en chrétientés, La Martiniere, Paris 2000 Faces of Christianity, A. Abrams, New York 2000
- Faith - Love - Hope. A photographic journey into Christianity. From the French by Cornelia Sevrain, Knesebeckstraße, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-89660-074-5.