Werner Bringold

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Werner Bringold photographs everything. Werner BRINGOLD Freelance photographer Born 27 August 1942 in Basle, Switzerland Telephone/Fax: (689)451 137 Papeete, Tahiti French Polynesia Werner Bringold has a double nationality, at the same time French and Swiss (he was naturalized French in Noumea, New Caledonia in 1972). If he passed his Baccalaureate at Basle, in Switzerland, he continued his studies in other latitudes as he obtained a "brevet grand cabotage" (coastal master's ticket) in Australia in 1969. His professional development brought him to work in a strategic area, and he received professional training as an underwater photographer at Mururoa. In 1972, he married Savelina Hoatau, a young Wallisian woman, with whom he had three daughters, all of them adults today. His professional resumé recounts a life of exceptional variety and deserves to be cited chronologically, better to understand the man who is usually hidden or camouflaged by a tangle of cameras. 1962-1968 : A merchant seaman, sailing under various flags. 1968 : A seaman specialized in various landing craft, coastal navigation between Darwin, the Gulf of Carpenteria and Papua-New Guinea, and diver for the Dillingham Corporation. 1970 : Multi-function technician of marine works for Citra Spie Battignolles in Noumea, New Caledonia, and for Comex Singapore (tugboat captain, barge commander, diver, etc.). 1973-1977 : First mate "lent" by Citra to Sofrana (first mate aboard several vessels of the company Sofrana: the "captain Tasman", "Isle o Light", "Captain Wallis". 1979 : He was first mate aboard the "Isle of Light" during the expedition of "Medecins sans Frontières" (Doctors without Frontiers), with Bernard Kouchner, on the Mekong River for 10 months (Viet Nam and Cambodia). 1980 : Escorted the Moorea Ferry "Tosa" from Japan to Tahiti. 1980-1989 : He was barge commander, pilot boat captain and diver for the CEA-CEP at Moruroa and Fangataufa and director of the amateur photo laboratory of Mururoa. 1989-1990 : Intermittent freelance photographer for the daily newspaper, "Les Nouvelles de Tahiti" between campaigns at Mururoa. 1991 - today : Full time freelance photographer for "Les Nouvelles de Tahiti", as well as occasional photographer for "Basler Zeitung", the weekly "Vahine Magazine" and other publications on Tahiti. In 1994, he helped create a photo novel with Teva Sylvain for the company Pacific Promotion Tahiti SA. The year 2000 has been symbolic for him, as, if he has been a member of the World Wildlife Fund since 1962, he became a participant in the Nobel Peace Prize with the association, Medecins sans Frontières. Speaking fluent English and German, Werner Bringold has an intimate acquaintance with Oceania and the oceanic mentalities. A specialist in military, naval and cultural subjects, he is a dedicated traveler, and, professionally, he has worked with a Nikon F3 for the past 25 years. Rapid, enthusiastic and determined, Werner has been impassioned by photography and the ethnology of Oceania since his early youth. He participated in the South Pacific Festival of the Arts in Samoa in 1996 and again in New Caledonia in 2000. In 1995, he shared in a collective photographic exposition in the gallery of the government tourist office. This was followed, in 1996, by a one man show of his pictures, shot previously in Samoa, at the Papeete City Hall. He also produced two photo documentaries, one on San Francisco and the other on Melbourne. Werner Bringold has been inspired throughout his life by certain examples, exceptional men of his time who influenced greatly his way of life and the framework of his thinking. He is pleased to cite the names of author Ernest Hemingway, Dr. Albert Schweitzer, Dr. Bernard Kouchner and Jean-Claude Brouillet, a pioneer in the development of the Tahitian black pearl and writer-flyer. Among photographers, Adolph Sylvain, Henri Cartier Bresson and René Burri were of particular influence. Moreover, he has photographed them all, so true is it that Werner never stops shooting all who pass in front of his camera.