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Cause and effect: American rebels through the eyes of Jean-Pierre Laffont

New York in the 1960s, like much of the United States, is unrecognisable from the land many of us know today. French photographer Jean-Pierre Laffont captured all manner of daily life in the city, and beyond, in a stunning new book, "Rebels with a Cause".

READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2026/11/13/cause-and-effect-american-rebels-through-the-eyes-of-jean-pierre-laffont

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00:16I arrived to the United States in April 1964,
00:19in a moment when I first arrived, not to the United States,
00:22I arrived in New York, in the city of New York,
00:24and I didn't have money to go abroad.
00:27And I found myself in a city where everything was in ruins,
00:32where everything was dirty, where there were crimes everywhere.
00:36I lived in the West Side, it was dangerous to walk in the night.
00:40It was a city where I realized
00:43that if I was walking around with my equipment,
00:46I was at risk.
00:48It was a city that was at the end of the crash.
00:56Everything new is a subject to a visual emotion for a photographer.
01:01We see things, we notice them, we frame them, we frame them, we frame them.
01:10We frame them.
01:10They are easy to see and photographic.
01:24I realized that the people who were in the streets were not necessarily
01:30against the Vietnam War, which was not their war,
01:34which they didn't understand nothing.
01:36But in fact, it was the injustice with which they were mobilized.
01:43The American draft was a lottery at that time.
01:48Certains could stay at their studies and continue their university.
01:52D'autres, on the contrary, were forced to leave.
01:55Because, unfortunately, they had been taken out of a bad luck.
01:59It was them who left.
02:03In more than two or three years later,
02:06it was about 71 or 72 years later,
02:09there were a lot of young black Americans who left.
02:16They were really going to the farm.
02:19They were really in the combat units.
02:22And that was also an injustice that began to perceive.
02:30All these movements that started at New York
02:33started often at Washington, where I also went.
02:37And these movements began spontaneously.
02:42One of the first, which I remember very well having lived,
02:46because it happened in joy.
02:48It was a rebellion in joy.
02:50It was the first gay Pride, which was in June 1970.
02:59They arrived at Central Park.
03:02And they got dressed up.
03:05They got dressed up.
03:06They got dressed up.
03:07They got dressed up.
03:07And it was a fantastic day for me.
03:11I didn't know that it was the first gay Pride.
03:15It was a homosexual party that was extraordinary.
03:18It was very beautiful.
03:19There was a lot of joy,
03:22with the girls and girls.
03:24And it was amazing.
03:25And it was totally extraordinary to photograph.
03:32I came back 10 years later,
03:34for the 10th gay Pride.
03:36But on the other hand,
03:37I was going to take care of the gay movement in San Francisco.
03:43There, there were a maire,
03:47there were doctors,
03:49there were garagists,
03:51there were restaurants,
03:53there were avocats,
03:54there were architects,
03:56homosexuels,
03:57for the homosexuals,
03:58and who wanted to work with the homosexuals.
04:01It was a community very interesting,
04:05very intelligent.
04:07But finally,
04:08it was, at the end,
04:10it was rebels.
04:11It was not a revolution,
04:12it was a rebellion.
04:14It was against the system,
04:16in place,
04:18and San Francisco was extremely well achieved.
04:30I had five photos
04:31around me,
04:32when I went to some regions,
04:34because there were the objectives,
04:35we didn't have the time to change.
04:37It's a great chance
04:38that the young photographers are today,
04:40they didn't recharge their photos,
04:43they didn't think,
04:45ah, that's it,
04:46I had 36 views.
04:47They didn't think
04:48that's the flash,
04:49because the appareils
04:50can even do photos
04:51even at night,
04:51and without flash,
04:52today.
04:53Now,
04:55everything is done automatically.
04:56In addition to that,
04:58the appareil tells you
04:59where you have done the photo,
05:00when you have done the photo,
05:02you won't lose it.
05:03I lost hundreds of thousands
05:05of photos
05:06that were given to my clients
05:08because in my agency
05:09it was like that.
05:10The first photos
05:11went to the best magazine
05:12and then they gave me
05:14the original ones
05:14that I didn't see,
05:16that I didn't see,
05:17that they were taken,
05:19that they were perhaps
05:22in the archives
05:23today
05:23of some great magazines,
05:25but in all cases
05:26they're no longer in mine.
05:39I'm not yet
05:40in the artificial intelligence.
05:43Many people see a huge threat
05:48on the wrong photos,
05:49on the trafficked photos,
05:50on the trafficked photos.
05:51I came from a generation
05:53where it was not
05:56necessary to modify
05:58its negative.
06:00I was a witness
06:01of my time
06:01and I had never
06:03taken a photo.
06:13a photo.
06:15A photojournalist
06:16a photojournalist
06:17a photojournalist
06:18should understand
06:19what happens all of them.
06:20It's a sudden,
06:22it's a happy moment,
06:24it's a demonstration
06:25of such a thing.
06:26We need these photos.
06:28One photo
06:29it's always more
06:30than a film,
06:31more than television.
06:33We remember more fixed image than mobile image.
06:37All the time.
06:38And we need that.
06:40We need to have witnesses all the time.

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