The French Navy

While reporting on the French Navy and Task Force 150, a multinational anti-terrorist mission under French command, I was hosted on board the supply ship VAR bound for the Gulf of Aden. One fine August morning I disembarked in Djibouti. I would never have imagined seeing dawn breaking over the Suez Canal, cutting through the mist in a convoy of ghost ships, slicing through the blurry night and the phosphorescent waters of the Red Sea, taking in with the same glance and having within shooting distance both Africa and the Middle East, and the austerely beautiful places and fiery skies that have brought to life the stories of countless adventurers and writers.

Through these images I wanted to pay tribute to the men and women united in an adventure common to them all, yet also personal, and highly demanding. Submitting to military discipline, fitting into the social life of the wardroom, becoming accustomed to the lack of privacy - not to mention learning to deal with the solitude - all are stages in this rite of passage, the rigors of which some had not been previously aware.

Mesmerized by the sea, ever the same yet always changing, the endlessly receding horizon, just as the constricting walls of the cabin, send you retreating into your thoughts. A ship is a great “revealer”.