Profile in Courage - Veronique de Viguerie

So,  I was cycling through the channels this night before Thanksgiving, and I came across this HBO documentary called, Witness.   It followed a French photojournalist named, Veronique de Viguerie.   She's in the south part of the Sudan, one of the most dysfunctional nations on Earth. She was traveling around,  getting a sense of the cruel life of the people living there.  We're talking subsistence farmers, struggling to survive, with the added weight of the constant threat of violence from an armed group of thugs called the LRA, led by the infamous Joseph Kony. For years, Kony and his band have assaulted one village after another, murdering people, kidnapping women and children,  burning and pillaging the landscape.

With virtually no protection from the Sudanese army, the locals launched their own militia, calling it the Arrow Boys.

So here's Veronique, this young, attractive blond woman,  following the armed Arrow boys as they traipse through the bush, searching for Kony and his band.  It's amazing television.  She's  capturing the moment with her camera, putting herself very much at risk of being caught in the crossfire of a deadly confrontation with Kony's thugs. On top of everything else, Veronique was pregnant while fully engaged in this physically demanding adventure in the South Sudan.  That's who she is.

Veronique de Viguerie

Veronique de Viguerie has embedded herself with the Taliban in Afghanistan and with muslim pirates in Somalia.  She's put herself in harm's way in Iraq, Niger, Mexico, Guatemala. Libya, and Pakistan.

On 10/31/12, I wrote another Profile in Courage blog entry. It was about Corrine Dufka, also a photojournalist.   What these two women share is a relentless focus.  Courage is obviously a big part of who they are, but with Veronique and also Corrine,  the thing that seems to drive them is a determination to deliver a result worthy of the story they are covering.   I admire them, and appreciate all that they do to reveal ugly human conflicts that don't get nearly enough media attention.


Here's a link to an article written about Veronique in The Daily Beast.  http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2010/06/12/veronique-de-viguerie-fearless-photographer.html

Here is a link to Veronique's photo gallery  .http://vero-de-viguerie.photoshelter.com/gallery-list

Here is a link to a video taken from Veronique's time in the South Sudan.http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/photobooth/2012/11/witness-south-sudan.html