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Oct 30, 2011stefanya rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
In 1986, French photographer Didier Lefevre accompanies a Doctors Without Borders humanitarian mission into Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion. The story follows the group as they prepare for their mission, trek from Pakistan into the Northern region of Afghanistan, set up a make-shift hospital to treat the wounded, and finally trek out of the country and return to France. Lefevre is admittedly naïve about the politics and culture of the region, which gives the reader a fresh perspective from which to view this conflict. Because of the nature of the medium (graphic novel, interspersed with photography), the book is seemingly fast-paced. The text is almost exclusively dialogue and the story is told through a number of characters. This layering of stories along with the layering of medium creates a richness in the work that makes it very hard to put down. "The Photographer", coupled with a film like "Charlie Wilson's War" might be an interesting pop-culture introduction to the Soviet-Afghanistan conflict for those who were previously unaware or uninterested. Those interested in this work for both the topic and the format may also be interested in Ted Rall's "To Afghanistan and Back: A graphic travelogue"