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Member Since: 11/2006Last Seen: 7/12/2009

Iconic photo changed history, and photographer's life forever

News Type: Opinion — Seeded on Mon Aug 27, 2007 6:27 AM EDT
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Sometimes a picture is worth more than a thousand words. Sometimes it can change a man's life and even, for good or ill, the course of international politics. It's hard to argue against that in the case of Paul Watson's famous 1993 photo of a dead American soldier dragged in triumph by a howling mob through Somalia's capital of Mogadishu.

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2.9
{"commentId":977966,"authorDomain":"ZenAid"}
ZenAid

An amazing story, glad it ended happier than did Kevin Carter's, another fantastic photographer.

{"commentId":977966,"threadId":"143020","contentId":"923460","authorDomain":"ZenAid"}
  • 4 votes
Reply#1 - Mon Aug 27, 2007 6:36 AM EDT
{"commentId":978380,"authorDomain":"pev"}
Pev

Thanks for seeding this. I've always been fascinated by the Bang-Bang Club and the tragic lives their photography brought on them -- Kevin Carter and his horrible guilt, his drug addiction and his suicide; Ken Oosterbroek and Greg Marinovich, shot while documenting a gunfight outside Johannesburg; Joao Silva, who had to decide whether to stop photographing the battle and pull Marinovich and Oosterbroek (who was fatally injured) to safety or continue documenting one of the final struggles before democracy returned to South Africa. Kevin Carter was only absent from the firefight because of the Pulitzer award; he would kill himself three months later.

It's strange, and sad, to think that the people we rely on to bring us images of history -- the images that let us know frightening and unpleasant truths, but help us understand the world -- are haunted so terribly by them.

{"commentId":978380,"threadId":"143020","contentId":"923460","authorDomain":"pev"}
  • 3 votes
Reply#2 - Mon Aug 27, 2007 10:54 AM EDT
{"commentId":978453,"authorDomain":"ZenAid"}
ZenAid

I knew Kevin, Ken and Joao - adrenalin junkies all of them, and superb photographers. I've lost track of what Joao is doing now, but Marinovich is working for the Sunday Times in Johannesburg I think.

{"commentId":978453,"threadId":"143020","contentId":"923460","authorDomain":"ZenAid"}
  • 4 votes
#2.1 - Mon Aug 27, 2007 11:19 AM EDT
{"commentId":978572,"authorDomain":"pev"}
Pev

You knew them? Sorry, I must have a pathetic fan-geek moment here. The history behind the Bang-Bang Club is so incredible. They did the right things -- they brought these extremely important images to the rest of the world, they showed us things that no one else would have shown us, no one else had the balls to show us -- but they paid terrible, unimaginable prices for it. Thinking of Carter sitting in the dust, weeping, after photographing that girl...or of Silva having to actually stop and think about whether to pull his wounded and dying friends to safety or to photograph them.

I mean, the photographs themselves are breathtaking -- a picture speaks a thousand words -- but in some cases, the psychological costs of those pictures and the stories of the people behind them are far more powerful.

{"commentId":978572,"threadId":"143020","contentId":"923460","authorDomain":"pev"}
  • 4 votes
#2.2 - Mon Aug 27, 2007 12:15 PM EDT
{"commentId":978616,"authorDomain":"ZenAid"}
ZenAid

So rare - and great - to come across someone who has read the Bang-Bang Club, Pev.

the psychological costs of those pictures and the stories of the people behind them are far more powerful.

I often think that journalists - reporters or photographers - covering wars and other human-inflicted disasters make huge sacrifices, not only to their lives but to their psyches. They do an amazing job.

{"commentId":978616,"threadId":"143020","contentId":"923460","authorDomain":"ZenAid"}
  • 5 votes
#2.3 - Mon Aug 27, 2007 12:32 PM EDT
{"commentId":978845,"authorDomain":"pev"}
Pev

I agree. I mean, I have a lot of problems with the flood of "embedded reporters" who tagged along with soldiers at the beginning of the Iraq war...there were a lot of stories about reporters wanting 'babysitting,' or wanting the soldiers with them to protect them from the scary scary war. When photographers like the Bang-Bang Club went out there, no one was protecting them; they were in the line of fire -- literally -- taking enormous risks. There were photojournalists in Yugoslavia in the 80s, or in the middle of the Hrvatski rat in the 90s, and they weren't clinging to anybody's apron strings. War photographers -- and real war reporters -- need to have a strong, adrenalin-fueled mentality. Spotlight hounds (Geraldo Rivera, I'm looking at you) who treat a war zone like it's a lurid amusement park need to stay the hell at home.

{"commentId":978845,"threadId":"143020","contentId":"923460","authorDomain":"pev"}
  • 2 votes
#2.4 - Mon Aug 27, 2007 2:02 PM EDT
Reply
{"commentId":978385,"authorDomain":"killfile"}
Killfile

Honestly, who writes an entire news story about a photographer and this picture he took that changed his life and doesn't include the picture?

{"commentId":978385,"threadId":"143020","contentId":"923460","authorDomain":"killfile"}
  • 13 votes
Reply#3 - Mon Aug 27, 2007 10:54 AM EDT
{"commentId":978468,"authorDomain":"ZenAid"}
ZenAid

I hear you. I see it used very rarely - perhaps there is a reason why.

Here is a link to the picture, although not of great quality.

{"commentId":978468,"threadId":"143020","contentId":"923460","authorDomain":"ZenAid"}
  • 5 votes
#3.1 - Mon Aug 27, 2007 11:26 AM EDT
{"commentId":982804,"authorDomain":"sbutki"}
Scott (Scoop) Butki

This is fascinating. Great seed. I'm tempted to get this book and interview the author but I'm swamped.
This discussion and your comment of war coverage reminds me of this book and interview by John Burnett of NPR.

Killfile, I had the same question. I figured it was a copyright issue.

{"commentId":982804,"threadId":"143020","contentId":"923460","authorDomain":"sbutki"}
  • 1 vote
#3.2 - Tue Aug 28, 2007 10:38 PM EDT
Reply
{"commentId":978951,"authorDomain":"blai"}
BlaiseP

The Police said it best: it's a song I played in the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp.

How can you say that you're not responsible?
What does it have to do with me?
What is my reaction?
What should it be?
Confronted by this latest atrocity
Driven to tears

Hide my face in my hands, shame wells in my throat
My comfortable existence is reduced
To a shallow, meaningless party
Seems that when some innocents die
All we can offer them is a page in a some magazine
Too many cameras and not enough food
'Cause this is what we've seen
Driven to tears

Protest is futile
Nothing seems to get through
What's to become of our world?
Who knows what to do?
Driven to tears

{"commentId":978951,"threadId":"143020","contentId":"923460","authorDomain":"blai"}
  • 5 votes
Reply#4 - Mon Aug 27, 2007 2:34 PM EDT
{"commentId":979007,"authorDomain":"ZenAid"}
ZenAid

Incredibly moving, BlaiseP.

{"commentId":979007,"threadId":"143020","contentId":"923460","authorDomain":"ZenAid"}
  • 2 votes
#4.1 - Mon Aug 27, 2007 2:48 PM EDT
Reply
{"commentId":979372,"authorDomain":"roan"}
Roan

There was a good interview with Paul Watson on NPR this morning.

{"commentId":979372,"threadId":"143020","contentId":"923460","authorDomain":"roan"}
  • 3 votes
Reply#5 - Mon Aug 27, 2007 4:35 PM EDT
{"commentId":980378,"authorDomain":"w-barrow"}
Bill-177988

ZenAid, thanks for the link to Paul Watson's photo. I heard the NRP interview and was naturally curious to see the photo that was traumatizing him so. Other than the other Pulitzer-winning shot from 1994, which shows up frequently on the web, it is difficult to find these important news photos to view. I'm not trying to deprive anyone of their rights to a commercially-viable image -- even under these horribly anti-commercial circumstances -- but a non-commercial version to show what the newsworthiness is all about shouldn't be asking too much.

{"commentId":980378,"threadId":"143020","contentId":"923460","authorDomain":"w-barrow"}
  • 1 vote
Reply#6 - Mon Aug 27, 2007 11:46 PM EDT
{"commentId":984712,"authorDomain":"dvdrtrgn"}
dvdrtrgn

I wonder if the availability of that Pulitzer photo is substantially lower than other Pulitzer photos. What effect might this have on driving book sales?

{"commentId":984712,"threadId":"143020","contentId":"923460","authorDomain":"dvdrtrgn"}
    Reply#7 - Wed Aug 29, 2007 3:17 PM EDT
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