Interview with Stephen Dupont

We are glad to welcome in Perpignan Stephen Dupont, an international award winning Australian photojournalist. Stephen is drawn to places that he finds mysterious.

Fascinated by Afghanistan and the beauty of the country, he went there for the first time in 1993. "I fell in love with the country, the people, the culture; not the war. But what's happening in Afghanistan keeps me going back there".

Over the past decades, Stephen has produced an outstanding body of visual work, offering beautiful photographs from all over the world. Since the beginning of his photographic career in 1989, he has been capturing the human dignity of his subjects with great intimacy and often in some of the world's most dangerous regions: Afghanistan, Angola, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, India, Israel, Iraq, Rwanda, Somalia, and Zaire.

His images have received international acclaim for their sincerity, artistic integrity and valuable insight into the people, culture and communities.

Stephen earned photography's most prestigious prizes and has held major exhibitions in London, Paris, New York, Sydney, Tokyo, Shanghai, and at Perpignan's Visa Pour L'Image Festival. His work has also been featured in numerous important magazines.

His exhibition, Generation AK Afghanistan and the Perils of Freedom 1993-2008, reveals the human condition in times of war and the ever-changing face of Afghan society: the 1993 civil war, the conflict and refugee crisis, internally displaced persons, child labor, the rise of the Taliban in 1996, the life of Ahmed Shah Massoud, and the current War on Terror by the US, plus the narcotics disaster. "I want to show a population that has suffered war for years, and how life continues in spite of a constant conflict." Afghan people suffer a big trauma. The consequences are heavy: drugs, mental health problems, depression.

Working conditions in Afghanistan are difficult. The danger is invisible. "I take necessary precautions for my safety. I know the country, listen to local people's advice. But you never know." In 2008, he survived a suicide bombing in Kabul.

Stephen is interested in covering world-changing events. "The subjects I like give me a reason to photograph. I want to tell the world what's going on".

Marion Mozzi