“This self-portrait is dated March 1962. I had returned from a mission as radioman in the interior, in the Djurdjura, having received a warning from my comrades in the radio station. I already knew when I got out of the jeep that I was in for a bad quarter of an hour, a quarter of an hour that could last a whole lifetime. I came back, and saw a secret service or military police jeep. I immediately disappeared into our room. My buddies had already hidden my notes and a few of my things – soldier solidarity. I only had time, only had the reflex, to go to the barrack room mirror and take a photo of myself. It’s almost a kind of self-portrait of civilian death. I thought that I would disappear from civilian life and find myself in who knows what kind of a hell. Shortly afterwards I was arrested, arraigned, and incarcerated”.
Pierre Guyotat
BLACKOUT ((poetry & politics)) 