PARIS.- The Marie-Laure de Decker exhibition, on show at the MEP from 4 June to 28 September 2025, is the first major retrospective devoted to this major figure in photojournalism. By rehabilitating her work, the MEP is paying tribute to her by highlighting her vision and approach, which are capable of bringing together history and intimacy, and which have a particular resonance today.
Marie-Laure de Decker has travelled through the history of the second half of the twentieth century with her camera, capturing the major upheavals of her era as she met people and made commitments. She made her mark in a largely male-dominated environment, where working as a photographer was – and still is – a real life choice, driven by passion, adrenaline, risks and renunciations. At a time when few women dared to enter this field, she did so with fierce determination and extraordinary courage.
From the 1970s onwards, she stood out for her unique approach to photojournalism. Her reports, covering major conflicts such as the Vietnam War, apartheid in South Africa and the Chilean dictatorship, are characterised by a profound humanity. Rather than seeking the shock image, she prefers to capture the dignity of individuals, exploring the off-field of war. Her photographs do not show violence head-on, but show it in a different way – through the faces and stories of those who live through it, as illustrated by her poignant series on Chadian combatants and her portraits of Yemeni women activists.
Marie-Laure de Decker (1947 – 2023) was a French photographer and photojournalist whose career spanned more than forty years. She documented numerous armed conflicts as well as the major social and political upheavals of the twentieth century. Her most memorable reports include the Vietnam War, the anti-colonial struggle in Chad, apartheid in South Africa and the resistance to dictatorship in Chile. She is also renowned for her emblematic portraits of figures from the world of culture – such as Marcel Duchamp, Federico Fellini, Françoise Sagan and Catherine Deneuve – as well as political figures such as Presidents François Mitterrand, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing and Nelson Mandela. From the 1980s onwards, she broadened her creative field to include fashion and film photography.
