Les Tombes: Srebrenica et Vukovar

Title: Les Tombes: Srebrenica et Vukovar

Photographer(s): Gilles Peress

Writer(s): Eric Stover, Richard Goldstone

Designer(s): Gilles Peress

Publisher(s): Scalo, Zurich, Switzerland

Year: 1998

Print run:

Language(s): French

Pages: 334

Size: 14 x 21 cm

Binding: Hardcover

Edition:

Print: Steidl, Göttingen, Germany

Nation(s) and year(s) of Protest: Bosnia and Erzegovina - Croatia,1992-1997

ISBN: 9783931141868

During the Bosnian War (1992–1995), acts of ethnic cleansing were committed in the former Yugoslavia, and this work by Gilles Peress examines precisely this horror that took place in Europe, bringing to a close a century of wars and injustices. Bosnia and Herzegovina was a territory where three communities had long coexisted: Bosnian Croats, Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Serbs. In 1991, the system held together by Marshal Tito collapsed, and in April 1992, war broke out. The history of the conflict from 1992 to 1995 is long and extremely complex to understand due to the intertwining of military and political objectives.

To document the acts of ethnic cleansing, Gilles Peress becomes a forensic anthropologist, and illustrates his subject using a documentary approach, through photographs of mass grave excavations and work in the mortuary. He acts as a forensic photographer, much like forensic scientists who meticulously examine a crime scene. The book reveals the reality of mass graves and highlights the crucial work of forensic experts, thus becoming a valuable tool for the prevention of mass atrocities. It also emphasises the duty to remember. Documenting reality, capturing it in images visible to all: this is Gilles Peress’s work on mass atrocities.