Sherine Mahook, Queen of the Icon – Liberation

“You will see, LibyanTime passes quickly”, She liked to repeat, with a sinister eye, highlighted with kohl, to any new recruit to the newspaper. She was right. Photography Section Column For nearly twenty years, the queen of iconography, Sherine Mahook has left her mark on newspapers with her cheerfulness, unusual looks, swirls of menthol cigarettes, and leopard fashions. She died suddenly in Morocco on the night of Tuesday, April 30 to Wednesday, May 1.

Shirin loved to recharge her energy in Taroudant, where she undoubtedly found a little of her Eastern origins. Shirin was beautiful and elegant, like a little Persian princess, even in a tracksuit that she easily matched with high-heeled shoes… without forgetting the scooter she was riding around on, as a precursor to the 2000s. She was funny, making fun of each other and others. herself, and always demands it “Coffee with a small pot of milk on the side,” While observing the waiter’s decaying head.

She is an only child, and was the granddaughter of Baha’u’llah, the founder of the Baha’i religion that supports the spiritual unity of humanity, a monotheistic religion born in the nineteenth century. His Palestinian family, originally from Haifa, was forced to flee to Lebanon. His mother, Maliha Afnan, a Palestinian of Persian origin, close to Edward Said, was a well-known painter, currently on display in “The Arab Presence” at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. His father, a Syrian economist, worked at the International Monetary Fund in New York.

“The world around us was fading.”

Sherine Mahook was born in 1965 in Lebanon and grew up in Beirut. The war drove her into exile in 1974. She arrived in France, in Paris, where she experienced a complete change of scenery in a strict private school, where she performed 400 movements. She trained in literature at the Sorbonne, and began her career as a magazine iconographer world. Laurent Abadjian then recruited her into the photography department launch Thanks to A “Short and persuasive handwritten letter” : “I chose her for her great culture and mastery of foreign languages. She spoke English, Persian and French in the same sentence. She was bright and philosophical, a master of tensions, very outgoing, and an atypical and enriching personality. She joined in 1996 released, She established herself as a distinguished iconographer, sharp, demanding, stubborn, and never consenting. “It’s annoying!” She often criticized, frankly and completely, images that were too smooth or too predictable.

“She had a very personal way of looking at her interlocutor: she would look into your eyes and touch your arm. The world around me faded away and I was still convinced of his idea about the upcoming photo session. recalls photographer Olivier Roller. I loved photographers who were committed, thoughtful, who took risks and who were good above all else. “As a photographer, we would be disappointed if it wasn’t packed. If Shirin didn’t see any benefit in your photos, it’s because our report was missing some dimension, Jérôme Bonnet reports. She was always free and fair in her choices, very far from being obvious but always respectful of the photographer’s final choice. She represents essence Libyan From an era with People from diverse backgrounds And strong personalities.”

Despite her sometimes extravagant appearance, she was as methodical as she was organized in her work. Sometimes, Shirin took risks, defending the image tooth and nail, relying on her original biased vision, convinced of the need to move away from the narrow perception of the image. Isn’t this the country the article talks about? Wrong topic, not the correct date? “Yes, maybe, but it’s not far, and the picture is really cool!” She responded to her skeptical interlocutors. Why couldn’t we show people’s backs in their photos?

Cyril Coppell, at the time a very junior member of the publishing team of launch, Regular on economics pages – “A very unaesthetic subject” –Really remembers “Verbal duels” With Sherine, to whom he tried to explain the sovereign debt crisis or the fall of Lehman Brothers: “Well, it’s money.” It concluded once and for all. “For an editor who’s always worried that some story will come in and take everything away without warning, his lack of tension is conspicuous even at closing time,” Always admired him if not completely reassured him.

Rough diamonds, fragile and strong

Fascinated by the human psyche, attentive to others, she had a special sensitivity to broken destinies, and a tenderness for marginal existence. Late in life, she was brave and passionate, and studied psychology. Then there were shifts into specialized services, sometimes with the continuation of icon painting Echoes or Telerama. His health was fragile. One day, one of her many doctors — she had an address book of alternative doctors — suggested she work on a routine to refocus her. I rejected the suggestion at first. Then he accepted, but on the condition that it was not like that “Too close to the ground and the ground.” Sherine Mahook has an adorable daughter, Dylan, with photographer Antoine D’Agata.

We who worked with her and will never be able to forget her are devastated by this tragic news. We will always carry a little bit of Sherine in us, this little girl, this diamond in the rough, fragile and strong. Above all, it is the laughter that remains, this informal way of greeting life so as not to show that it is too precious and the word “Snitch snitch” Which she used all the time. In case she was hit hard, she also said, fatally, with a lot of class, “Life is a bitch” Before adding with a smile: “Then you die.”