Santiago, Chile.
Coup d'etat, September 11, 1973
A few of the images sold by international news organizations by a photographer who wasn't there. The moment the first tanks arrived, all photographers and cameramen disappeared down the under ground garage of the Carrera Hotel. Only Sylvain and myself remained. And yet there's a photographer by the name of Horacio Villalobos who claims that he took these photographs.
There were only two of us, Sylvain Julienne and myself. While Sylvain was still alive he confirmed that these images weren't his.
Regretfully, there always will be photographers who will claim images they have not taken.
Neither of the news organizations answered my repeated request for an explanation.
See any similarity between these two images? (105 mm lens) I also constantly changed lenses so I could record the same scenes in b&w as well as in color. On my contact sheets you can see the various lenses I used.
This is an image taken by me. I used four cameras, 2 with b&w film and 2 with color film. Notice any similarity? (200 mm lens)
And of all the b&w films I shot that day, there are several strips of 6 negatives missing. Thirty six images to a roll, cut into 6 strips of six negatives. Whoever took them must have had access in 1973 to my files stored in the Gamma office in Paris.
Around 07:30-08:00hrs in the morning of Sept. 11, 1973
The armored cars which had surrounded the Moneda are leaving.
The carabineros take the prisoners with them as they leave the 'Intendencia'
Aides-de-camp desert La Moneda palace.
When the tanks arrive the journalists and the carabineros leave.
Around 09:45 hours. the carabineros have changed sides and leave the Intendencia.
The carabineros have changed sides and are leaving.
After what seems about half an hour, the tanks and ground troops are leaving after having fired massively at the front facade of the Moneda palace.
Tanks and troops are leaving, only to return around 12:30, after the Moneda has been bombed.
The Moneda has been bombed, the tanks return firing their 50 cal machine guns, the remaining spectators flee for safety. (12:30hrs)
Tank rattles down Calle Moneda, cal. 50 machine gun roaring. soldiers hide in doorways.
After the first bomb hit the Moneda palace, the last of the spectators fled.
Calle Moneda just after the first bomb dropped on the Moneda palace.
General Pinochet with Cardinal Raul Silva Henriquez. Archbishop de Santiago.
The newly blessed members of the Junta.
In the early morning of September 11, 1973, around 0700 hrs, the telephone rang.
“Chas! Wake up!”
“Silvain? Is that you?”
“Listen! I can see from my hotel window that the Carabineros have surrounded the Presidential Palace with armored cars. You better get your ass over here, something is happening!”
In a hurry I packed my camera bag with my four Nikon F’s, four lenses: a 24mm, 35mm, 105mm and a 200mm and around 30 rolls of b&w and 20 rolls of color film. Half an hour later I arrived in front of the Moneda Palace and saw President Allende on the first-floor balcony of the Moneda. I took two shots, he was turning away. Did I get him? Or was I a second too late? Damn! (Years later I saw many of my images I took that day for sale on the Getty and Reuters websites. Some of these images could not have been taken by another photographer because there were no other photographers there. The moment the tanks arrived, around 09:30 hrs that morning, all the journalists had disappeared down the off-ramp into the underground parking lot of the Carrera hotel.) And Sylvain Julienne and I were the only two photographers left, till 5 1/2 hrs later we were told at gunpoint, by a sergeant and two soldiers, to leave or else. We left, it wast 15:00hrs.