“People are traumatized by the bombings, but also by the attack of the pagers”

Sunday 20th October 2024 12:01 PM

Born in 1992, Adrienne Surprenant has been a press photographer for ten years. Of Canadian origin, she lives in France and regularly works in conflict zones, whether in Ukraine, the Central African Republic, or even Sudan. She worked numerous times for the newspaper The Worldfor which she covered the situation in Lebanon from September 24 to October 11.

How did the departure for Lebanon go?

I was eating in a canteen on the road to Grand-Popo, in Benin, where I was for a long-term project about climate change, and I had just organized a series of important meetings when I received the call from the newspaper’s photo department. I was already following the news in the Middle East constantly, so I didn’t hesitate long before leaving.

In fact, in my head I was already in Lebanon. I flew as quickly as possible to Paris, where I spent four hours, time to receive the security equipment provided by the newspaper (bulletproof vest, ballistic helmet, cash, etc.) and to pack my bags. That same evening, I was in Beirut.

How does arrival in the country take place?

I found Hélène Sallon, the newspaper’s correspondent in Lebanon, to take stock, and I went to the ministry of information, where I had to fill out a lot of paperwork and wait for two hours, in the company of a group of international journalists, before having the work authorization issued by the government.

As we planned to go to the south of the country the following days, I also had to apply to the army to obtain a pass to work in this area, which has a special status. Finally, the news kept us in Beirut longer: the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in a bombing of the Lebanese capital.

In a cafe next to American University Hospital. On TV, images are broadcast live from the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, in Beirut, on September 28, 2024.

Place des Martyrs, in Beirut, September 28, 2024. “This astonishing photo of joy has a special story. When the death of Hassan Nasrallah was announced, the Lebanese streets were in shock. At that time I was on the Place des Martyrs, silent, when I heard loud bursts of voices coming from the surrounding cafes. The television screen had broadcast an archived speech by Hassan Nasrallah, but with the “live” banner, which misled the people of this café, who thought that the leader of Hezbollah was not dead . »

A man screams and cries, near the Mohammed Al-Amin mosque, Martyrs’ Square, shortly after the official announcement of the death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut on September 28, 2024.

How does it happen, concretely, when you arrive with your camera on the ground, after a bombing for example?

In Beirut, we hear the detonations in the distance, and we are quickly kept informed by social networks, so there was no difficulty in knowing when and where the bombings took place. Whenever possible, I work in duo with another photographer, Ali Khara, who lives in Lebanon.

Between us, we have a much better assessment of the risks, and we decide together whether to go to a location or not. Getting around Beirut at the moment is very complicated. The city is a giant traffic jam, already in normal times. Now, there are more people who flee their neighborhoods after each bombing, and the streets are clogged with the vehicles of numerous refugees from the south of the country, who have gone to the capital to flee the operations of the Israeli army. We found an efficient taxi driver who we worked with daily.

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