The Lens Is Standard, the Photos Anything But

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PERPIGNAN, France â€" Jerome Delay has been on a quest for simplicity while covering some of the most important stories in Africa for The Associated Press. For the last year he has relied almost exclusively on one camera, and one lens, a 50-millimeter F1.4.

Limiting himself to a single lens, he says, imposes a rigorous discipline. It also has other advantages: when people see him photographing with a simple lens, they are rarely threatened and, he finds, don’t take him seriously.

And it doesn’t cause backaches.

“The 50 is exactly what the human eye sees, without any distortion,” said Mr. Delay, 53, who has been based in South Africa for the last eight years. “If you shoot with a wide angle, you’ll get distortion. I don’t want the face to be larger than it’s supposed to be, and I don’t want hands to be larger than the face.”

This year, he has spent much of his time covering the turmoil in Mali and a continuing refugee crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo. His photos are being featured in the large-screen evening projections at the Visa Pour l’Image photography festival in Perpignan, France.

Jerome Delay/Associated Press Seen through a car’s windshield, members of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo sat with their weapons on a pickup truck outside Goma, in the eastern part of the country. Congo’s mineral-rich east has been wracked by fighting since April, when army deserters calling themselves the March 23 Movement, or M23, launched a rebellion to demand better pay, better armaments and amnesty for war crimes. The fighting, the worst in years, has forced some 280,000 people from their homes. Aug. 13, 2013.

Mr. Delay has covered a great deal of tragedy during his time in Africa, but his images are often quieter and less dramatic than those of some of his colleagues. He says that he has to create aesthetic images to get editors and readers to pay attention to the important stories that are happening in Africa.

“We have to talk about the exploitation of the land and the people,” he said. “But there are few happy stories in Africa. People are sick and tired of the cliché of people starving to death in Africa and people chopping heads off. I’m not sure that my job is to make you laugh. Really, my job is to tell you what is going on.”

Since 1995, Mr. Delay has documented suffering in the Democratic Republic of Congo on a scale that is almost unimaginable. More than five million people have perished in conflicts, and civilians are repeatedly uprooted and often on the move, fleeing from one military force or another.

“There are many different forces, ranging from bad, to very bad, to very, very bad guys,” he said.

CREDIT Mireille Iduhaye, 8, at Rutshuru Hospital, now under the control of M23 rebels, outside Goma. She was shot in the eye and the bullet exited through the top of her head, doctors said, but she did not sustain any neurological damage. Aug. 4, 2012.

His task is to take photographs that will make the viewer stop and look at them in a world that is flooded with more than a billion pictures every day. While many photojournalists seek more complexity, Mr. Delay craves direct images that are both accessible and aesthetically pleasing.

Having driven more than 8,000 miles in Mali, he finds the country to be astoundingly beautiful. During much of the conflict, when the Malian military kept photographers far from the front lines, Mr. Delay sought other ways of showing the effects of the conflict: through empty streets and closed stores, for example, with photos that are simple, yet arresting.

“I try to apply the rules of contemporary art to news photography in order to make pictures that will be more likely to be looked at,” he said.

Jerome Delay/AP Photo Recently freed from Islamic rule, women flocked to a central market in Gao, Mali. After 10 months of black veils, Malian women have begun to wear bright colors, makeup and jewels. Jan. 30, 2013.

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