John Morris was Life Magazine's London editor in the summer of 1944, apparently the man who managed to save a dozen of Robert Capa's Omaha Beach photos in the London office while the rest of the legendary photographer's D-Day landings shots were lost due to a blunder. Now 96, his own photos from wartime Normandy — including one of German prisoners (aka members of the Aryan race) in a truck driven by a black American — can be seen at Perpignan's Visa Pour l'Image photo festival, exhibited for the first time ever.
Claire Guillot has an article in Le Monde about John Morris, whom she quotes (re-translated back from French translation):
"In 1944, I was based in London, but I wanted to see [the war] with my own eyes. I managed to invent myself a job in France, that of 'coordinator of press photographers.' It was pretty ridiculous but that's how I landed on Utah Beach on July 16."
The beaches are safe, but there is fighting in the surrounding areas. For four weeks, John Morris assists photographers in Normandy and Brittany all the while taking amateur shots with his Rolleiflex for his own sake. "Photographers covered the front. As for me, I photographed the daily lives of the people I saw, I was interested in how the Normans were surviving the war." In these images, we sometimes see Capa at work from the back.
These in-sides of the war, away from the bloody battles, give another vision of the months of confusion that followed the landings. In the rear lines, soldiers, resistance fighters, prisoners, refugees and media cross each other's pathes. John Morris shows the confrontation between the victors and the vanquished, photographing German prisoners embarked in a Jeep driven by a black soldier.
"En 1944, j'étais basé à Londres, mais je voulais voir ça de mes propres yeux. Je me suis débrouillé pour m'inventer un poste en France, celui de "coordinateur des photographes de presse". C'était assez ridicule, mais c'est comme ça que je suis arrivé le 16 juillet à Utah Beach."
Les plages sont sécurisées, mais il y a des combats aux alentours. Pendant quatre semaines, John Morris assiste les photographes en Normandie et en Bretagne tout en faisant des images pour lui, en amateur, avec son Rolleiflex. "Les photographes couvraient le front. Moi, je photographiais la vie des gens que je voyais, je m'intéressais à la façon dont les Normands survivaient à la guerre."Dans ces images, on aperçoit parfois Capa, de dos, au travail.
Ces à-côtés de la guerre, loin des combats sanglants, donnent une autre vision des mois de confusion qui ont suivi le Débarquement. A l'arrière des lignes, des militaires, des résistants, des prisonniers, des réfugiés et des journalistes se croisent. John Morris montre la confrontation entre les vainqueurs et les vaincus en photographiant des prisonniers allemands embarqués dans une Jeep conduite par un soldat noir.
