After covering the suicide bombing on Benazir Bhutto's convoy last month in Karachi and the events surrounding her return to Pakistan from self-exile, I left for an assignment in Rwanda and then returned to Beirut thinking that I wouldn't be back in Pakistan until the lead-up to their elections a few weeks down the road. How wrong I was.
Dispatches Archive |
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2007December 2007The men didn't seem to understand what two blond girls where doing in this dirty casino. The only way to get things done around here is with gunplay. Iraq, many people might be surprised to learn, has a functioning court system. Well, "functioning" might be too strong a word but it does have an array of non-religious criminal courts run by the Iraqi government. November 2007When I first started out in the business someone told me that 5 percent of photojournalism was the actual picture taking and the other 95 percent was the stuff that got you to the place you needed to be to take the picture. So many tragic events start out after you've awakened in the morning, the sun shining and you think to yourself, "What a brilliant day." The Burmese military, accompanied by plain-clothed thugs, stood at the opposite end of the street, machine guns and riot shields at the ready. October 2007The telephone number you have dialed is inoperative. The stench of sulphur and dead animals completely dominated the air. Pine Ridge Reservation knocks you on your ass. The feeling of oppression and poverty is ubiquitous and extreme. The rainy season was just around the corner at the Thai-Burma border along the Moei River. Putting the viewfinder to my eye became not just the way to make pictures -- it offered a momentary escape from the macabre scene playing out right in front of me. August 2007The most advanced hospital in southern Afghanistan is housed in a tent in the middle of the desert and provides life-saving treatment to the injured personnel of NATO's International Security Assistance Force, Afghan government troops, Taliban fighters and the innocent civilians caught in the middle of the conflict. Living in Afghanistan for almost one year since the summer of 2006, I've been covering various women's-rights issues such as education and politics. However, I did not realize that Afghanistan has the second highest maternal mortality ratio (MMR) in the world, only after Sierra Leone, as of February 2007. I would like to describe a ceremony that takes place in Iran during the commemoration of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet, and his 72 companions during the month of Moharram [roughly during the western months of February-March]. On May 4, 2007, an F5 tornado ripped through Greensburg, Kansas, and leveled the town. An F5 is the most destructive level of tornado. In late December 2006 I flew to Fresno, Calif., to witness Hmong New Year celebrations and meet a CIA legend – Hmong General Vang Pao. I was nervous and excited. Vang July 2007I arrived in the Sayeda Zainab quarter of Damascus around 9:00 in the evening where an eponymous shrine to Muhammad's granddaughter is located. I never went to Northern Ireland to photograph "The Troubles"; I had had enough of them here in the U.S.A. The '60s were a rough time here; the anti-war movement was in full swing and I had been documenting it whenever I could. He had a finger cut off on both hands; he had been shot through his wrists, knees and ankles. A couple weeks later the paramilitaries who had done it returned to apologize for having mistaken his identity. June 2007"We are trying more to get the bad guys to use their resources to flee." As my senses returned, the first thing I was conscious of was agonized screaming. When I passed patients and medical employees with my camera equipment they gave me suspicious looks. May 2007The next thing I remember is strapping on body armor and grabbing my camera as small arms fire cracked overhead... Women light a candle at the door of one house and pass to another one... I'm not a spot-news junky although I enjoy the challenge presented by covering most news events. April 2007I came to Indian-occupied Kashmir in the context of a larger trip around South Asia to document the fraying edges of the much-hyped Indian ascendancy that I'd been hearing about ad nauseam in the American media over that last few years March 2007While in a war zone people can break up, divorce, fall in love, go bankrupt and even become parents from 8,000 miles away. The overall sense of fear is almost numbing, surreal. February 2007"We were told the flight into Baghdad would be the most dangerous part of the trip." "I had heard countless horror stories from other shooters of theft, knife attacks, and general harassment and distaste for foreign journalists." January 20072006December 2006November 2006"There's been a coup! There are APCs rolling down Silom Road right now mate, get your kit!" To get great access to the street I needed a person of substantial thug credibility. Unsurprisingly, the Afrikania Mission jealously guards its shrines from journalists. We all have different methods: mine revolves around natural curiosity. Fugitives, the images provide their own answers to the "major riddle" of Asia October 2006The wedding had begun the morning before and showed no sign of slowing down.... In August 2005, I headed back to my home country after an eight-year absence to film a documentary on the Israeli evacuation of the Gaza Strip. It was very difficult to find a tribe that a journalist, Marie, and I could follow to make the trip from Pakistan into Afghanistan. My satellite phone rang... It all started with a glass of champagne — sparkling white wine for those who will argue that champagne can only be produced in that region of France. September 2006August 2006Since July 12, the American media has obsessed on one subject: the escalating Lebanon/Israel/Gaza war. I woke up early on July 12 in my small suite apartment at the Mayflower Hotel in Beirut, my base between working on different stories in various countries for the previous four months. It was a routine Wednesday morning as I tried to make some phone calls to members of the gay community living in Jerusalem to coordinate portrait shots. Soon On the morning of July 12, 2006, eight Israeli soldiers were killed and two more were kidnapped at the Israeli-Lebanon border by the terrorist group named Hezbollah. July 2006I was approached by the charity Jubilee Action (with whom I have a long-standing working relationship) to be part of their campaign and global report on children in prison called, "Kids Behind Bars: We Must Act." The dust swirls around my feet in the Comoro district of Dili, East Timor. It was but two days ago that I arrived, a newly minted freelance photographer visiting the world's newest country. In May of 2004 I was cleared for an embed with the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (11th MEU) and First Battalion Fourth Marines (1/4). "Don't be a hero," Al Saraya hotel owner Fayez mentored me after checking out of my room in Amman. Until a century ago Iranian music was limited to folklore music. However, since then the influence of different kinds of western music has brought Iranian music out of its isolation, giving it more variety for its enthusiasts. The traffic is chaotic in Kampala. In the beginning I am holding on, white knuckled, convinced that the next car, making a hairpin turn right in front of us with only inches to spare, will misjudge its wild ride down the street and come crashing into us. It's barely dawn, 4:00 in the morning and cool by summer standards. In a few hours the temperature will climb steeply, like it did yesterday and as it will tomorrow – 40-plus degrees C (93+F), with no clouds in sight. Joggers slog by, their reflective safety belts slapping at their sides. June 2006I'm sitting on my balcony reading a novel by Haruki Murakami. The sun is shining gently on my face, I hear sparrows singing in the trees and the muezzin is calling for midday prayers. The man tilted his head back and laughed -- his hands and shirt covered in grime from mucking out a Hurricane Katrina-damaged home in the Gentilly area of New Orleans -- and said, "Man, you have your work cut out for you." He wasn't kidding ? I first learned of the Darfur crisis in the fall of 2004, a year after the atrocities began to unfold. I was working for Brigham Young University's newspaper at the time and the managing director, Jim Kelly, suggested that he and I go photograph the situation. May 2006Dara Adam Khel, one of the wildest places I have ever been, is located in the Khoat province on the lawless border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the entire village is living off the fabrication and sale of arms and munitions. Anything can be purchased here without a permit. Tears were dripping from the young man's eyes as he pulled his shirt open and pounded on his chest, walking step-by-step closer to the line of armed police. To say that nothing can prepare one for the misery that awaits in the eastern Congolese city of Mongbwalu is a lie. For its plights and desolation have been exposed and offered up to the world on numerous occasions. Living in Israel, close to the Gaza Strip, and being a freelance photographer in a country full of news and even more photographers, I came to accept the late phone calls and very early-morning starts to beat the competition and meet the deadlines. April 2006From Torino
The Olympics Games have always represented the pinnacle and premier event for sports with the best in the business coming together for a nonstop symphony of sports. The Soil Dance
In Iran there are many special religious ceremonies held each year... "Passion lives here!"
"Passion lives here!" That was the slogan for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. And a party it was, too! A Racing Man
Winter never gives up on New England without a fight. In the Black Zone-Chernobyl
At 1:24 a.m on April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear facility exploded during an attempt to increase the capacity of the reactor. March 2006I had photographed as they began to cut their heads and bodies with various sharpened blades of all shapes and sizes.
Finding a once-every-12-years Jain Festival, where millions partake in the ritual bath of a giant statue in India, was a unique experience.
The Bugti tribe and their allies, the Marris, to the north attack Pakistani garrisons daily, exchanging mortar fire with the much larger and better equipped army.
Ramadi was indeed the front line of the "War Against Terror" in Iraq.
February 2006David and Goliath Off Antarctica The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessel Farley Mowat was sailing through the Southern Ocean on a quiet morning when we got the call from the bridge saying that the Nisshin Maru was on the radar and roughly two hours away. One Night, One Photo It was supposed to be a relaxing Friday evening in San Francisco. Mara Salvatrucha Flaco didn't look like a killer. The Red Carpet While I always did well covering daily news in New York City, it didn't take me long to figure out that I could pay my bills much easier shooting entertainment. January 2006Bolivia Rising Evo Morales was late and the miners were starting to light off fireworks. Route Michigan, Ramadi From the soldiers' rooftop position on top of the small Marine outpost called Snake Pit, election morning in the Iraqi City of Ramadi seemed eerily quiet. Amman Airport, Christmas Eve 2005 The airline supervisor peered at me over the counter as I piled the scales high with over 100 kilos of baggage. 2005December 2005Wednesday, Nov. 9: Four Iraqi suicide bombers - three men and a woman connected with the Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Al-Qaida leader in Iraq - walked into three different western hotels in Amman, Jordan, wearing belts packed with explosives and steel balls and blew themselves up, killing 59 people and wounding hundreds of others. While I'm thinking that the photo business has been kind of slow for the last two weeks, a short e-mail from Greenpeace changes it all. This October I set out to photograph the widows of Dujail, a series of simple portraits of the women left behind after Saddam Hussein's forces rounded up their fathers, husbands and sons in retaliation for a 1982 assassination attempt against him. "Your face is covered in blood," says United States Navy Petty Officer John Gulizia. November 2005I am sitting in my house in Tehran watching 'Sex and the City' on a DVD, which sometimes can make you really happy in this town. When
the earth violently shook on Oct. 8 there was no one to hold
accountable, just a foreboding sense of helplessness and the hope that
media coverage would lead to greater international aid. He's
been an inextricable part of my life for more than two years now but
I'd never known his name, his age or anything else about him. October 2005Eli Reed, Magnum photographer and now a professor at the University of Texas, Austin, had no thought of making the coverage of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath a class project. For as far back as I can remember, the word "hurricane" was among the most ominous in the vocabulary. As Hurricane Katrina was tearing through Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana there were many allusions by the media to the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. "I'm afraid this one's headed for us." September 2005This morning, shortly before dawn, I am abruptly awakened by silence... I got the call on Saturday around noon from one of the photo editors, Leslie White. Hurricane Katrina had already hit Florida, and now it was headed for the Gulf Coast... Time magazine assigned me to follow my nose to wherever the Hurricane Katrina story was. Trying to describe this entire experience is impossible. So, perhaps the best I can do is to walk through one of the more memorable days. Ever since I was asked to do this, I've been struggling with what to write. AugustJuly 7, 2005. I was looking forward to today. Night falls; soldiers are shadows and the Palestinians standing at the checkpoint are only moving shapes. It all started off as a normal day! Soon after realizing that photojournalism was my calling, I came to understand that if I was going to enjoy a family life and survive in our creative yet incredibly competitive profession, I would have to find a niche. It was a 13-year-old settler boy from a ramshackle collection of trailer homes along the sea that may have saved me. JulyWhile working on a six-part project on poverty in Africa, I met three young sisters in eastern Congo. Bolivia has experienced almost perpetual unrest since it became an independent republic in 1825. "Finland! Why Finland?" JuneSeveral men grab me from behind and are dragging me backwards, holding on anything they can, my arm, a bit of shirt, my camera bag, my camera. I hug my camera tight and start screaming NO. I entered the country as a tourist. A teacher on holiday, to be exact. We love you Michael MayThe skies above the eternal city must have vibrated at night with digitalized voices booming into the galaxy to be bounced back down to hometowns across America. The massive basilica, designed by Bramante and Michelangelo, was nearly silent save for the sounds of shuffling feet and the unfortunate clacking of our shutters. Polio, in Nigeria, is politics April"Let's go over to my studio" People see colors differently; they see different things in the same picture. In this day of digital this and digital that, they still depend on me, my $20 drawing pad, pen and markers in my hand, to come up with the images sent on the satellite around the world to millions. I was rid of my fixer, rid of my agenda MarchPhoto gallery from the 2005 Oscars Photo gallery from the the Gates exhibit in Central Park The guys understand that something is wrong, and all they can say is... "Malaria." FebruarySADR CITY, Iraq: "He gave you a miracle..." Mudslide: La Conchita, California: I thought, I gotta get in here, and I can't stand at the yellow tape. Sri Lanka: The scene was difficult to capture, even more difficult to comprehend Band Aceh: You start to frame bodies into strong compositions. You justify it by telling yourself your images might make a difference. Sri Lanka: It was harder to look at the eyes of a mother Banda Aceh, Indonesia: They say journalists should witness and report; not cry. But how should you not. The only way is to kill your heart while you shoot your footage. Sri Lanka: As I photographed them, I wondered what to make of their smiling. JanuaryBodies dotted the landscape. I walked to the beach where workers were pulling them out from the sea. I just kept on shooting. I was the new guy: AFP Kuala Lumpur hired me one week ago as a temporary shooter. When we walked into the hospital, we had to take care to not trip over bodies; dazed survivors streamed in like ghosts. In a few minutes my SUV was submerged and I suddenly slipped into the water. He felt that I was making disaster pornography from his family's plight. I took out my mask and covered my face, but after a while, there was a point where I could not continue. People back home have jobs, kids, lives. There is only so much time for other people's distant crises. A front row seat as history is slowly etched into reality, into the past. I felt really sorry to be in their shots, but what to do, I should have a great picture, too. 2004DecemberI was miserably cold and scared. I thought for sure that I would be killed. The soldiers I'm with are ebullient. Many shouting "Get some" or "Four more years" The gunmen dragged me backwards through the dirt. I could see our car with my fearful driver, gun pointed at his head. I knew it would be difficult to get through the mob of people and I might miss a good a long lens shot or two from above. But at this rate, there was no way I was going to be able to photograph the actual burial. 2 from Iraq NovemberIt was a certified nightmare. A dispatches photo gallery A dispatches photo gallery The first line on the first page of our 26-page schedule has our pool call time listed as 5:00 am in the president's Cincinnati hotel. They pretend to make news, and we pretend to cover it. OctoberCelebrities, cityscapes, soldiers: memory becomes history SeptemberI didn't know what to say to people when I walked up to them. I soon found out there isn't much to say. I raised my camera and took some photos as the deputies told the women about the dead bodies. I see our part as getting information to them and showing them that they are not alone. I think of going to the humvee for my helmet but before I can move another mortar hits. "Most of them just want to be heard," said a New York City cop on 8th Avenue. AugustI'm in the B block. Jack tosses two questions to me. It was the ultimate perp walk. While many members of the ICDF had previously served in the Iraqi Navy it had been, in some cases more than a decade since anyone had worked on a ship. 3 weeks. 3,500 miles. No credentials. Manila's Mayer Atienza... said he thought he was being introduced to Miss Dallas. July...the "lid" was really on and we would not see the president-elect. Washington too often lets you see what it wants you to see, and Reagan's funeral was going to be no exception to this unyielding rule. Whatever one may have thought of his politics ... no one who met him could resist his charm and humor he brought to the table. When one of them addressed the casket as, "Mr. President," I couldn't hold back the tears.
As I drove across Sunset Blvd, and spotted the first satellite truck, I knew I was in the right place. Her real dream was to work as a journalist in Iraq. I always try to find good places and distances to shoot without the notice of the occupation forces and with the help of Iraqi people. I try always to hide between the Iraqi people when clashes take place. JuneMohammed's Garden is the anti-Iraq, or at least an oasis of good feeling in a desert of rage and fear. ... after I agreed to pool my photos it was decided that I could go along. "Why would anyone come here if they didn't have too?" MayThey led me into the minivan, alongside my colleague. Within a couple of minutes, at least two cars stopped alongside ours. They are focused and they are mad. Someone yells an order and they run towards the enemy. I follow them running, knees still unsteady. I ...see sandbags, probably sniper positions. I ask Abu Ibrahim if he thinks they are American or rebel positions. "It does not matter they both shoot." I left my passport and everything that might identify me as an American at the hotel and set off. In the rush I forget to cover my head. People stare. Kids throw insults. It's also the time to honor the fallen. That's where I come in. AprilEveryone is running in the hallways, looking for their flack jacket, searching for a helmet, cursing at the elevator that is just never there when you need it. I've got to file. ...the glass from his store windows blew out into the streets and the sidewalk where we were standing rumbled. I saw the black smoke of the explosion a few blocks away and ran towards it. MarchA routine develops. In the afternoon we shoot the demonstrations, in the morning, the funerals. A heavy mist had rolled in when we reached the roadblock at the tiny mountain-top village of Puilboreau. It was my picture, one I had taken 33 years ago. Somebody had pulled my Kerry picture off my agency's Web site, stuck Fonda at his side, and then used the massive, unedited reach of the Internet to distribute it all over the world. FebruaryNew Hampshire is a place where some folks' idea of a good time is sitting in a little shack out on frozen lake fishing through holes they cut in the ice. Despite that I go there every four years like clockwork. The Granite State is where the action is politically... With a digital camera on one shoulder, and a Rolleiflex on the other, I put an old Speed Graphic (is that redundant? aren't they ALL old?) on a tripod, and grabbed a few holders of tri-x... After Iowa, organizations begin to double-up their photographic coverage. It becomes more and more difficult to work. The events become increasingly controlled. Everyone is operating on less and less sleep... JanuaryTwo pairs of shoes still in their boxes: A pair of clean new Hongmahwang loafers and a pair of gilded, tacky Italian slippers. The footwear of a madman caught last month hiding in a rat-filled hole... It looked a lot bigger on TV. That is, before the journalists started popping out of it like little jack-in-the-boxes... I have been desensitized to a lot of things in my reporting career... Some ask where is it? Others joke, Iowa, what's there to do in Iowa? When I entered the ancient city of BAM it was about midnight, 26 of December, the very end of the day the earthquake had hit in the early morning... 2003DecemberDear Family and Friends... I'm not kidding, but in two hours the President is going to Baghdad. And we're going with him.... Peace? In the Middle East you said? Probably as elusive as Saddam and his WMD's... I arrived in Israel exactly 4 years ago this month for what was supposed to be a 3-week visit... NovemberToday is the first day of Ramadan, word on the street has it that things will be quiet for the next month... I'm sitting in Ar-Ramadi, Iraq with the Florida National Guard. Waiting to go out on a night time raid... I'm in Baghdad, the well-armed, lawless capitol city where the security situation has been deteriorating at a steady pace... The red glow got closer and the flames grew bigger... I feel as if I made a wrong turn and ended up on the set of Apocalypse Now... At the Los Angeles Times we were crafting a ten-year retrospective of the firestorms when history repeated itself... I almost drove off the road when I turned a corner and saw what looked like a bright light show... OctoberFrom the Eye of Isabel It's not quite 7 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 18, 2003. Wind is howling, the rain pouring down... With The "Running Man" on the "Total Recall" Bus Tour I have always wanted to photograph a candidate on a campaign tour, but I never thought I would end up on the "California Comeback Express" with gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger... Group Grope The antsy pack of journalists crowded the posh Pacific Palisades neighborhood street awaiting the arrival of Arnold Schwarzenegger to cast his ballot in the recall election... Hasta la Vista The recall has been described as a three-ring circus... SeptemberGoing Out by Simon P. Barnett, Newsweek
The Bridge, by René Clement, Time Magazine
Dark City, by Vince Laforet, New York Times
Sleepless Tour: The Dr. Howard Dean Campaign, by Mario Tama
AugustREFLECTIONS: New York City, by Ricky Flores
Cry Monrovia, by Chris Hondros
JulyBunia, Congo, by Spencer Platt
Eight Days in Abu Ghraib, by Molly Bingham
June$4,000 Worth of War, by Jim Bartlett
MayHow Was It? by Amy Bowers
Fear by Tyler Hicks
In Harm's Way by James Blue
CPL. Teasley by Rick Loomis
The Drive by Spencer Platt
Casualty of War by Rob Curtis
AprilFriendly Fire by Jud McCrehin
D-Day + 7 by Warren Zinn
MarchThe Clock Ticks... and Ticks... by Spencer Platt
WALL OF FLAMES by Amy Bowers
JanuaryThe Angry Streets by William B. Plowman
And You May Ask Yourself by Dana Smillie
2002DecemberMedia Boot Camp by Spencer Platt
NovemberA Nation on Edge by Cliff Owen
OctoberHurricane Lily by Jeff Barr
SeptemberA Dream Come True by David Snider
AugustOOPS! by Mike Watson
Fried at Five by Mark Bell
JulyThe Western Wildfires by Bill Redeker
JuneThe Oklahoma Bridge Collapse by Holly Sweet
The Vatican by John Arden
AprilMarchFebruaryNightline's Tom Bettag in the Congo January2001DecemberNovemberOctober |
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