The first in a series of stories about conflict photographers is a fascinating read. . .
The Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail is doing a year-long series on photojournalists and the physical and psychological effects of their profession - the first story (has soundclouds as well) covers the story of photographer Joao Silva, who continued taking a few pictures after stepping on a land mine in Afghanistan in 2010.
“There was a guy with a metal detector sweeping one area and a guy with a dog sweeping another… and the guy with the dog is followed by a guy providing security. I’m photographing all of this. They passed through the doorway of a mud-house ruin and the first thing that went through my mind was, that’s typically where something is going to blow. Doorways are where [the Taliban] plant a lot of stuff. But it seemed fine now, so I made a decision to follow them. And as I took that first step I heard a ting. BAM! I was instantaneously face down. It felt like an electric bolt going through my whole body. An electric shock multiplied by thousands.”
Silva, though seriously injured, survived. . .but in this article, we gain so much insight into how (and why) he kept taking pictures even when half his own body was blown apart and he was lying on the ground.
Silva is only too aware that it was inches that separated his footprint from those of the soldiers who preceded him. Such are the vagaries of war, where survival and loss are so finely calibrated. But he still has faith in the importance of his job. “Sure, I regret standing on the mine,” he confides, “who wouldn’t? But do I regret being there? No, because I was doing what I would normally do any other day. That’s where I had to be… to document what I see.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/three-frames-it-wasnt-a-calculated-thing-i-wanted-to-record-it/article24563869/?click=sf_globefb&service=mobile
