HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABBAS
March 29, 2024
Today would have been Abbas’ 80th birthday. Google is celebrating this special occasion with us by creating a Doodle in his honour. Click HERE or visit the Google Doodle page to view the Abbas Doodle.
“My photographic adventure began with a photo taken one summer’s day in 1952 at Tehran airport. That day, my whole family took the plane to emigrate to Algeria. I was eight years old and standing in the front row, dressed in a four-pocket safari jacket – already! I wore a camera, a large square box, around my neck. A prescient photo? But why the military salute? To bade farewell to the world I was leaving? To greet the one I was about to enter?” – Abbas
LETTER FROM FRENCH PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON
August 25, 2023
We are humbled to have received a letter from French President Emmanuel Macron thanking and congratulating Abbas’ wife Melisa Teo for the album Abbas: 100 Photos for Press Freedom published in collaboration with Reporters Without Borders.
Translation of text:
“Dear Madame,
I have well received your letter accompanied by a copy of the album by Reporters Without Borders dedicated to the work of the photographer Abbas.
Sensitive to your approach and the reason that guides it, I thank you very warmly.
I take this opportunity to salute the work of your husband, whose memory you evoke, and whose photojournalistic reports participated in defending the freedom of expression and information to which, as you know, I am very attached.
Please accept, Madame, the assurance of my respect.
Emmanuel Macron”
The photo of President Macron was taken by Abbas at the Chateau de Versailles in 2017.
#Presidencedelarepublic #emmanuelmacron #abbasphotos #abbasmagnum #rsf #albumrsf
FESTIVAL LA GACILLY – PHOTO BADEN, AUSTRIA
June 15, 2023
The La Gacilly Photo Festival has moved from Britanny in France last year to Baden in Austria this year. The theme Orient! focuses on photographers from Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan – “photographers who have always chosen to break conventions in order to develop an innovative style and look at people and gods with humanism infused in them,” according to the festival organisers. Entitled Licht und Schatten (Light and Shadow), Abbas’ black and white photography presents “incessant collisions between reality and myth, derision and fanaticism, chaos and beauty, gentleness and sadness, and shadow and light”. The festival features over 1,500 photographs and stretches over 7 kilometers, divided into a garden route and a city route, starting from the visitor center at Brusatti Square.
FROM 15 JUNE – 15 OCTOBER 2023
Festival website – festival-lagacilly-baden.photo
LAUNCH OF “ABBAS: 100 PHOTOS FOR PRESS FREEDOM” IN PARIS
April 3, 2023
The launch of “ABBAS: 100 Photos for Press Freedom” was celebrated by Abbas’ friends and family, the photographers and staff of Magnum Photos, the team of Reporters Without Borders, and members of the press at the Magnum Gallery in Paris last Thursday.
We would like to extend our personal thanks to Singapore Ambassador HE Foo Teow Lee for the honour of her presence on this special occasion commemorating the fifth anniversary of Abbas’ passing.
“ABBAS: 100 Photos for Press Freedom” is part of a collection of albums published by Reporters Without Borders which pays tribute to the greatest photographers of the 20th century. 100% of sale proceeds goes toward supporting press freedom. Order online via boutique.rsf.org
Language: French
Price: 12,50 euros
Event photos courtesy of Gäel Dupret.
NEW ALBUM: “ABBAS: 100 PHOTOS FOR PRESS FREEDOM”
February 27, 2023
OPENING WEEKEND AT THE LA GACILLY PHOTO FESTIVAL, BRITANNY, FRANCE
June 6, 2022
The La Gacilly Photo Festival was inaugurated over the weekend in the presence of the participating photographers, members of the press and partners from all over the world. Fonds Abbas Photos is grateful to Festival Curator Cyril Drouhet, Founder Jacques Rocher, President Auguste Coudray, Director Stéphanie Retière and the amazing La Gacilly Photo Festival organising team for this stunning tribute to Abbas’ work and their generous hospitality.
FROM 1 JUNE – 30 SEPTEMBER 2022
VENUE: THE PRAIRIE, LA GACILLY, BRITANNY, FRANCE
Information and booking +33 2 99 08 68 00 – contact@festivalphoto-
New exhibition: “LIGHT & SHADOW” AT LA GACILLY PHOTO FESTIVAL, BRITANNY, FRANCE
May 30, 2022
NEW EXHIBITION: LIGHT AND SHADOW
1 JUNE – 30 SEPTEMBER 2022
The La Gacilly Photo Festival in Britanny, France, will present, in collaboration with Fonds Abbas Photos and Magnum Photos, a major retrospective of Abbas’ work. Abbas’ journalistic images will be displayed alongside lesser-known, more contemplative shots taken of people and their environment. Entitled Light and Shadow, this exhibition of 50 black-and-white large format photographs will present the incessant collisions between reality and myth, derision and fanaticism, chaos and beauty, gentleness and sadness, and shadow and light that defined his work.
Founded in 2004, the La Gacilly Photo Festival is an immersive photographic experience with over 20 open-air galleries presenting contemporary photographic creations that question man’s relationship with the world and the natural environment. In this 19th edition of the festival, more than a thousand photographs will adorn the streets, gardens and alleys of La Gacilly, a commune in the Morbihan department of Brittany in north-western France. The theme of this year’s festival is Visions of the East, with focus on the work of photographers from Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
VENUE: THE PRAIRIE, LA GACILLY, BRITANNY, FRANCE
Information and booking Place de la Ferronnerie – +33 2 99 08 68 00 – contact@festivalphoto-
New graphic novel: “MOHAMED ALI, KINHASA 1974”
June 1, 2020
We are pleased to announce the launch of Mohamed Ali, Kinhasa 1974 – a graphic novel based on Abbas’s photographic adventure at “The Rumble in the Jungle”, the legendary fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in 1974.
It’s been described as the greatest boxing match ever fought. And arguably the greatest sporting event of the 20th century. On October 30, 1974, former world champion Muhammad Ali went up against George Foreman, the undefeated heavyweight champion of the world, in the famous “Rumble in the Jungle” in Kinshasa, Zaire.
Ali went into the fight as a 4-1 underdog after Foreman had knocked out the only two fighters to have ever defeated him. And for eight brutal rounds only one winner ever look likely. Foreman pummelled Ali with body shot after body shot but he refused to go down. The former champ took everything that Foreman could throw at him in a fight that was immortalised by Ali’s famous ‘rope-a-dope’ tactics. Ali leaned back into the ringside ropes for round-after round while Foreman threw punch-after-punch at him. By the start of the eight round, Foreman was exhausted. He had punched himself out.
Then, in a stunning reversal of everything that had happened up to that point, Ali exploded off the ropes and rocked Foreman with a devastating right and left combination that sent the champion tumbling to the canvas. Against all expectations, Ali had won by a knockout and reclaimed the world heavyweight championship.
Abbas was there to immortalise this once-in-a-lifetime fight. Now, 36 years later, his photos bring that famous night to life in this rare book – an incredible cross between documentaries, photo reports and graphic novels. Between each of his striking images, the authors fill in the gaps with the story of one of boxing’s greatest nights. So it feels like you too are ringside at the “Fight of the Century”.
Text and illustrations by Jo Morvan, Rafael Ortiz and Tréfouël. Published by Dupuis France.
Standard edition
• 136 pages
• 280 x 210 mm
• ISBN: 9782800163666
• 24.95 euros
Special edition
• A special edition limited to 777 copies is available with original frontispiece, numbered, signed and printed on art paper
• 35 euros
“ABBAS BY ABBAS” FILM SELECTED BY THE BIOGRAFILM FESTIVAL IN ITALY
Abbas by Abbas, a film by Kamy Pakdel has been selected for the 16th edition of the Biografilm Festival, which celebrates great biographies and cinematic life stories in Bologna, Italy from 5-15 June, 2020. Due to the ongoing Covid-19 health crisis which requires the closure of cinemas, the festival will be held online this year. The screening of Abbas by Abbas is scheduled on Sunday, 14 June at 21:00 (time in Italy). To watch the film, reserve your place in their virtual cinema by creating an account on mymovies.it.
“ABBAS BY ABBAS” in official selection of four FILM FESTIVALS in france
January 8, 2020
We are pleased to announce that “ABBAS BY ABBAS” has been selected by four film festivals including FIPADOC International Documentary Festival in Biarritz.
The television broadcast of the film in France is now scheduled on Tuesday, 18 February at 8.30pm on the LCP Assemblée Nationale channel. The film will be followed by a debate.
“ABBAS BY ABBAS” is a film directed by Kamy Pakdel and produced by Hind Saïh of Bellota Films in collaboration with LCP Assemblée Nationale
Director of Photography: Laurent Chalet
Sound Engineer: Dana Farzanehpour
Editor: Thibaut Sève
Composer: Julien Thiault
Co-Producer: Pierre Hanoune