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AFP publishes Focus, a special 2020 edition on the Covid-19 pandemic
Focus, AFP’s annual photojournalism album, is published this year as a special edition dedicated to the unprecedented health crisis facing the planet. The album showcases the exceptional journalistic work of the agency’s 450 photographers covering the Covid-19 pandemic.
Text in English/French
Released 19th November 2020
Éditions La Découverte
200 pages - 29,90 €
The story begins on January 30, 2020 with a striking AFP photo: the body of a man lying in a street in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
It marks the beginning of a global awakening about the gravity of the new coronavirus, which has shaken the planet to its very core with its catastrophic and unexpected impact on everyone’s lives.
“2020 is a singular year, without comparison. In the Agency’s 201 bureaus, our photographers have been, and are still, at the heart of the action, working to bring vital images for our collective memory,” says Marielle Eudes, Photo Director at AFP.
The album gives a human face to this unprecedented crisis. AFP delves into the fabric of deserted cities, stands by the bedside of patients in hospitals and intensive care units in order to tell the story of the devastation this virus is unleashing in all four corners of the world.
From the most remote communities in the Amazon to the suburbs of Dakar, passing through Hollywood or European capitals, AFP photographers have depicted, at the most intimate level, how lives have been upended by the pandemic. But they have also highlighted the formidable human resilience which has emerged as we cope with the ‘new normal’ in a world that is still struggling to live with the disease.
A book for History.