“It was one of the few times I had to put down my cameras to help aid workers, hire locals and start digging latrines,” he recalls. “That same night, the refugee camp was attacked and the refugees dispersed into the forest.”
Then, when the United States invaded Iraq on March 20, 2003, LeMoyne was embedded with American soldiers riding in a tank-like armoured vehicle. In the dark of night, their group of five vehicles took a wrong turn before their ammunition truck fell over and spilled its explosives.
In the morning, LeMoyne remembers, “Iraqi villagers were curiously looking at us from down the road. Because of our huge pile of munitions, the soldiers were prepared to shoot the villagers if they came closer.
“You can’t do that!” LeMoyne told the soldiers. He then offered to frisk the villagers. “The soldiers agreed and, with guns trained on me, I did, so those villagers would not be killed. It was one of those moments you can’t quite believe is happening.”
Award-winning eye
LeMoyne’s work has won numerous awards, including the top photojournalism prize at the 2020 National Magazine Awards — Gold in Photojournalism and Photo Essay — for “Who Owns Colombia’s Gold?” published in The Walrus.
His work has appeared in Paris Match, Life, TIME, Maclean’s, The Globe and Mail, and National Geographic, among other publications. His photos can be found in Library and Archives Canada, the U.S. Library of Congress, the CIDA Photothèque and UNICEF photo library.
LeMoyne's award-winning 2005 photo collection "Détails obscurs" examines the effects of conflict on civilians. He is currently at work on his second book — about Haiti — tentatively titled "La République de Port-au-Prince."