Disappearance – Well-known for covering presidential trips, the journalist took one of the photographs showing the handshake between Helmut Kohl and his French counterpart in 1984. He passed away at the age of 68.
Press photographer Jacques Witt, who had covered current events at the Élysée Palace and presidents from Mitterrand to Macron, as well as the fall of the Berlin Wall, has passed away at the age of 68, the Presidential Press Association (APP) announced on Saturday.
“A recognized professional, Jacques covered the Élysée Palace from François Mitterrand to Emmanuel Macron,” stated the APP in a press release, praising him as a “conscientious and dedicated colleague but also a man curious about everything, with a sharp eye.”
“Mini-diplomatic incident” in North Korea
Jacques Witt, born in 1958, began his career at the Dernières nouvelles d’Alsace before joining Sipa press. The association noted that he had notably “covered events in New Caledonia in 1985, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the release of Mandela, and the first Gulf War,” among others.
“He liked to tell the story of how, in 2007, while trying to take a photo at the border between the two Koreas, he inadvertently stepped into North Korean territory, causing a mini-diplomatic incident,” it emphasized, adding that “many journalists remember his photos as well as him, camera in hand at the four corners of the globe, closest to the presidents.”
“The Sipa family is in mourning: our photographer and friend Jacques Witt has left us,” reacted the photojournalism agency. On Instagram, Emmanuel Macron paid tribute by posting one of his famous photographs depicting the handshake between former President François Mitterrand and former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl in 1984 in the former commune of Douaumont (Meuse).
“Behind the images that shape our collective memory, there are great photographers. Jacques Witt was one of them. Through his gaze, patience, and courage, he became a witness to history,” wrote the President of the Republic.
In a statement, the head of state and his wife praised the work of Jacques Witt, who captured the daily lives of presidents for several decades. “Jacques Witt was the one who captured French political life, with his portraits of President François Mitterrand or the handshake with Chancellor Kohl, his images of Jacques Chirac taking the metro, and also the funerals of Bernard Tapie. The French people have seen the passage of time in the Republic through the power of his photographs,” they emphasized.
Through his images, Jacques Witt “revealed what also defined his personality: simplicity, humanism, love for freedom, and the joys of life.”
