Aline Nibet, the gaze that captured exile

Aline Marie-Louise Nibet (el Pertús, 1909 - Montpellier, 1983) was a young woman from Pertús who, camera in hand, documented some of the most shocking episodes of the Republican exile and its return to Spain, one of the darkest chapters in contemporary history. In February 1939, when thousands of people crossed the border fleeing the Franco regime, she immortalized the scene from the balcony of her house. With her camera, she captured the exodus of the Republican population, the passage of soldiers and civilians and the presence of the French security forces supervising the flow of refugees. Her images, which are now exhibited at the Memorial Museum of Exile (MUME), offer us direct testimony of those days of transit and uncertainty, when France was overwhelmed by the arrival of half a million people. Despite the coldness of the institutional response, numerous organizations and anonymous citizens helped alleviate the humanitarian drama. Aline's family was an example of this, offering food and shelter to those in need.

Nibet's photographs not only document the escape, but also the return of many exiles to a Francoist Spain full of uncertainties. After the war, many were faced with a difficult decision: to stay in France, where they had no guarantees of a future, or to return to Spain, which was under dictatorship. The extreme conditions of the French concentration camps pushed many to return, despite the danger of repression that awaited them. Nibet, faithful to his vocation to document history, also captured this episode with his camera.

The exhibition, inaugurated yesterday, Saturday, March 29, takes us deeper into this visual legacy thanks to the conservation of the images by her niece, Michèle Vert-Nibet. After a first presentation at the Pertús Castle and later at the Porxos de Can Laporta in La Jonquera, it now arrives at the MUME to highlight not only Aline's photographic talent, but also the importance of her perspective in historical reconstruction.

Beyond her documentary work during the Retreat, Nibet was a person of great intellectual curiosity. Passionate about history, music, astronomy and botany, she traveled Europe capturing with her camera everything that aroused her interest. Despite her discretion, she left a photographic legacy that today allows us to better understand the events experienced on that natural border between Catalonia and France.

Aline Nibet i Michèle Vert-Nibet, 1960.