Rémi Ochlik

Biography Rémi Ochlik was born in 1983 in Thionville and lived in the area around Florange, Moselle, in the Lorraine region of northeastern France. As a child he had ambitions of becoming an archaeologist, but after he was given an Olympus OM1 camera by his grandfather, Ochlik gravitated toward his interest in photography. After completing school at Marcel-Pagnol in Serémange-Erzange and private high school of Saint-Pierre Chanel in Thionville, Ochlik studied photography at the Icart Photo School in Paris.

Career Rémi Ochlik began working for photography agency Wostok in September 2002 where he initially began photographing demonstrations.

Ochlik's friends and colleagues curated his photographic work that documented the Arab Spring revolutions and posthumously published it in 2012 as Révolutions, du rêve au printemps de Rémi Ochlik.

Notable photojournalism assignments

Haiti

Ochlik's breakthrough came after he documented riot scenes in Haiti in 2004 during the Presidential elections. He later returned to Haiti again in 2010 for IP3 to photograph the 2010–2011 Haiti cholera outbreak. Injured journalists from that same attack were William Daniels, Paul Conroy, and Edith Bouvier.

Photojournalist William Daniels was able to recover photographs from Rémi Ochlik's camera that was found in the ruins of the rocket attack. Three of those images were edited for the Ochlik's posthumously published book, Revolutions. Among them were a photograph of men at a funeral and a man alone in the dark with his weapon.

Guillaume Clavières, senior photo editor with Paris Match, quoted over two months before Ochlik was killed:Rémi is one of the most talented young photographers of his generation. Motivated, enthusiastic, curious and brilliant. He is capable of going from one difficult news topic to another less dramatic subject with the same photographic quality. The future is his.

Karim Ben Khelifa, a friend, photojournalist and curator for Ochlik's posthumous book Revolutions:Art is something that is perceived by the others. It depends on your own motivation. I would never assume that Rémi would think of himself as an artist. He was a journalist, he was a witness. Now, if people decide to look at it and find art, and find emotions and classify it this way, it belongs to the people. It doesn’t belong to him. she had written about her relationship with Rémi Ochlik on Radio 4's Broadcasting House, a popular news program. The radio host Paddy O'Connell was so moved by her poem that he could not continue to broadcast, and Radio 4 had around 12 seconds of dead air. Her poem is written as both a letter and a list about the personal qualities Blachère loved most about her partner. She includes many personal connections with Ochlik. The poem alludes to his many international assignments. Her poem includes a quotation of Ochlik's favorite movie, Singing in the Rain (1952). The published, printed poem (a variation on her reading on BBC) also references L'amour est dans le pré (the French version of Farmer Wants a Wife), Dexter (TV series), and Harry Potter. At the end of her printed poem, Blachère acknowledges another fallen journalist and a colleague and friend of Ochlik, Lucas Dolega. Dolega was the first journalist to have died in the Arab Spring revolutions in Tunisia. She ends her poem: "My angel, give Lucas a kiss for me. Take care of yourself. Take care of us."

Rémi Ochlik Prize Friends championed the renaming of the City of Perpignan Young Reporter Award (Le Prix du jeune reporter de la ville de Perpignan) to the Rémi Ochlik Prize (Prix Rémi Ochlik).

Awards Francois Chalais Award for Young Reporters, 2004, for his photojournalism while covering the Haitian coup d'état. World Press Photo, 2012, for his General News photo story called "Battle for Libya"

Exhibits Hommage à Rémi Ochlik ('Homage to Rémi Ochlik'), La Médiathèque de Florange, France, 2012 Revolutions: Photographs of the Arab Spring, Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University, Boston, USA, 2013.