Birth of the Cool

Michel Comte has established himself as one of the foremost contemporary fashion photographers. In the midst of all his achievements, he has never lost sight of what motivates his work: a ceaseless curiosity about people. A journey to Tibet in 1986 marked the beginning of his work as a photojournalist, and he has since traveled to China, Egypt, the Sudan and Cuba. In 1991, during the war in the Persian Gulf, he toured Jordan and Israel. He has also dedicated himself to recording the works of the International Committee of the Red Cross and recent trips have taken him to Iraq, Pakistan, Haiti, Bosnia, and Afghanistan. This carefully composed book, developed in cooperation with the Red Cross, is the first to exclusively feature his reportage photography. These extraordinary images capture the vulnerability of the human soul, and vividly reveal more about fear and hope than any amount of words ever could.