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|| SportsShooter.com: News Item: Posted 2003-03-15
Review: 'Shooting Under Fire' edited by Peter Howe
What Photographers Should Be Reading
By Jim McNay, Brooks Institute of Photography
Before photographers go of to war, they might want to do some homework. This latest effort by Peter Howe will assist.
The strength of this book lies in the voices of the photographers who contributed. The reader comes away feeling as if he or she has eavesdropped on conversations as photographers talked about what it was like to be near some of the most challenging photographic assignments on the planet.
Contrary to the cliche, war photographers are not all about bravado. Many are exceptionally human about the ugliness they have seen and the impressions left on them.
Catherine Leroy clearly communicates the trauma she encountered making pictures in Vietnam for LIFE magazine. All this was an unsettling experience, and it stuck with her-for years.
Also reflecting on Vietnam, veteran Magnum photographer Philip Jones Griffiths reflects on how the Vietnamese clearly manipulated Westerners who came to their country as yet another wave of outside invaders. The Vietnamese, who had been through this experience for centuries, knew if they only waited long enough, the foreigners would get tired of being in their country and would leave. They just had to wait them out.
For those photographers who are looking for help in breaking into conflict photography, the tips are there. Patrick Chauvel outlines how he anticipated the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989 and sneaked in pretending to be a sailor on leave with his girlfriend. The only other photographer who got in before the invasion was Christopher Morris-who also brought his girlfriend!
Many of the photographers are candid about the wars they've covered. Yugoslavia comes in for a heavy dose of abuse, including from Chauvel. Of that conflict he says, "I didn't like either side. I didn't like the Serbs, I didn't like he Bosnians, and I hated the Croats."
Morris touches on the realities of just doing the job, "The hardest part of combat photography is how you're going to survive-getting from point A to point B, where you're going to sleep, what you're going to eat and drink once you're there. Forget the war part of it-it's just the day-to-day living."
After that, controlling one's emotions is the next challenge. Morris is candid on how he learned to do this, and where it took him once he learned it. "You have to stay calm. The minute fear comes into your body, it rises up. Somebody's shooting at you, you're lying on the ground, and you can feel the fear rise...you have to take control of that immediately and use it, because if you let it consume you, you're not going to produce-you're not going to take pictures."
With experience, photographers develop a sense of perspective allowing them to give some context to what they face. Morris says he and a friend developed a point system for grading near-death experiences. "A ten was an incident in which you should have been killed, or at least badly maimed. A seven or eight was an occasion where, for instance, you were pulled out of a car at gunpoint." With that sobering thought, he adds, "There were quite a few ten over the years."
Among the photographs are some of the toughest ever pulled together in one place. Whether it is Don McCullin's pictures from Africa or Vietnam, Maggie Steiber's photographs from Haiti, or Susan Meiselas' half-eaten dead body overlooking a gorgeous Nicaraguan landscape, what one sees in and around war is exceptionally clear if one chooses that lifestyle. No punches are pulled.
Having served as director of photography at LIFE magazine no doubt gave Howe credibility in approaching these photographers and asking for their participation. He not only collected insightful commentary from the photographer but also gained permission to publish a great collection of their photographs. In a collection of works on conflict photography, this volume is must.
Related Links:
Book: Shooting Under Fire
Jim McNay's member page
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