Cédric Gerbehaye clearly belongs to a tradition, and makes no secret of it. He works in black and white, in silver emulsion ; he insists on taking the necessary time for documentary investigation, for bering witness, for telling « stories » ; he insists on his need for freedom of eye and of word to purse his projects.

At a time when the flow of digital images grows up – many of them doomed to disappear, often seconds after they were taken – he calmly (if not comfortably) claims his place in the lineage « of concerned photographers ». This old-fashioned way of working – for as long as the technique survives – is both an engaged stance and an affirmation of the possibilities and ongoing meaning of photography in the digitally dominant age. The integrity of his point of view makes his approach comforting to people like me who ponder the construction of memory, so strongly marked by the silver emulsion print over the past century. Belonging to a tradition, one he clearly knows well, Cédric Gerbehaye views it as a culture – his own culture in which he can develop his purpose and point of view and express the emotions that push him to click the shutter while he is physically inside a situation. His tradition can traced clearly to Henri Cartier-Bresson who with the help of the lightweight, discreet Leica invented a new form of snapshot based on the geometric rules learned from his painter friends and from the respect of the golden number. This founding visual saga, which, among other things, established the rules of framing, has since been revisited, transformed and enriched by photographers like Gilles Peress, Eugene Richard, Larry Towell, Stanley Greene and others who each brought their personal touch. One tipped the horizon, while another incorporated blur or reorganized the staging of planes with frame. I am struck by journalistic dimension of all the works this photographer who is, after all, still just starting out. He questions, digs for information and refuses simplification. I am equally impressed by the mastery, control and even calm that seem too preside over his taking of photographs. The result, beyond the esthetically successful and sensitive use of light, is absolute clarity of purpose. In these times of confusion, agitation and noisy, voyeuristic images, this images seems to me essential. It is all the more important in crisis or conflict situations as a counterpoint to media coverage, especially on television an the Internet. Carried away by the obsession with speed and in spite of occasionally good intentions, this often tends towards caricature and superficiality. Whether in Israel, The Middle East or the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cédric Gerbehaye stuns me with the force of his viewpoint, the lack of hysteria in his pictures and the fact that they provoke me to pay serious attention to a situation about which I often know very little. And maybe even more importantly, without melodrama even in the most dire situations, they spur me to pay attention to and to wonder about people. What is happening to individuals, what they’re living through, and the ways in which they’re suffering. These photos have their natural place in a tradition of profound humanism, not one of catchy slogans but one that states simply, « Look. This is what it’s like. » With the hope of helping us to better understand and to accept our responsibilities as citizens of the world.