Arthur Smet — Wikipedia
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Arthur batter is a non-commissioned officer, a war reporter during the Algerian war.
Arthur Smet is born in Valenciennes the [ first ] In a family of seven brothers and sisters where the father is a minor.
Volunteer in 1953 at first is Motorized infantry regiment in Donaueschingen in Baden-Wurtemberg, RFA, Sergeant Arthur Smet is then incorporated into the 2 It is Company of 8 It is Motorized infantry regiment ( 8 It is RIM) newly trained in the Federal Republic of Germany.
Arthur Smet comes to photography by chance. He tells : “One day, the colonel sent me to sing for a reception at the castle of the Prince of Furstenberg. Fifteen days later, the prince made me wear two gifts, as desired: ice skates or a camera. A VOIGTLänder. I didn’t even have money for the movies, I sent all my pay at home. The vaguemaster bought my first coil of film. Twelve 6×6 views. I started taking pictures of the friends. ». He then began an amateur photography practice turned towards the representation of his daily life and that of his brothers in arms.
In 1955, the 8 It is Rim is sent to French Algeria with its gas masks. In , while his company confined in the vicinity of Saida, Arthur Smet meets a superior officer who changes his life: Colonel Marcel Bigeard. THE , “Bruno” – which holds this nickname of his radio indicative – has just received the command of the operational sector of Saïda and regrets the absence of his official photographer, Marc Flament. Arthur Smet temporarily replaces it and covers the Bigeard tour at the Oran Agricultural Company (CAO). His work, given in record time, hit the bull’s eye. From a wink, Bigeard tells him that now he covers the sector for him and hires him alongside Marc Flament [ 2 ] .
Consequently, his photographic practice is experiencing a new breath and professionalizes, partly thanks to Marc Flament who teaches him a time the technique but especially with the support of the military authorities which offer him the means to exercise his talent without constraint or censorship . In the wake of Flament – and on the sidelines of the SCA – Arthur Smet becomes one of the workers’ ankles of psychological action “at La Bigeard” by ensuring the photographic coverage of the Saïda sector for the realization of the information halls. These large walls of images, strategically arranged in order to be visible to all in public places, are accompanied by slogans promoting the health and social actions of France with Algerians, daily citizen, military and political life, and finally, The success of weapons of the Georges and Cobra hunting commandos, newly created in this operational sector.
With the exception of a stay in Constantinois in the fall of 1960, Arthur Smet’s photographs have the region of the Saida region, the South Oran and Oran. Several of his shots were published at the time in local newspapers such as the Oran echo or the Saida echo . In 1961, Arthur Smet was assigned to 2 It is Zouave and joins Oran to become head of the press photo service of the army corps. In this new job, he receives the assistance of two called from the contingent, Jean-Marie Pili dit Périer, famous photographer of the review Hi buddies And Jean Distinghin, photographer and actor in civilian.
In 1963, Arthur Smet took the boat for France and permanently left Algeria after a stay of eight years. He wins with him several thousand images, implacable both in their beauty and in their reality of a warless war, which constitute a photographic corpus of great strength.
These exceptional photographic archives, covering more than a decade of military history (1953-1967), are today digitized and accessible to the public on the computer positions of the ECPAD media library, in Fort d’Ivry in Ivry- Sur-Seine in the department of Val-de-Marne.
Unknown to the general public, he lives near Dax where an exhibition was devoted to him in July 2015 as part of the Dax photography festival.
He holds the following decorations:
- Bénésis de Rotrou (Lieutenant-Colonel-), Commando “Georges” and Algeria according to , Dualpha, 2009, PP. 6 ET 203 to 226.
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