Interview with magnum photgrapher ..Abbass

[Hsg]

He did not have the option not to see it. IMO, none of us really should take the option, not to see, not to bear witness.

Photos? I honestly don't know. I walked among the ruins of 9/11 for many months, I was "protected" from seeing, by those in charge.

Joel Meyerowitz on the other hand used his connections and got the commission to photograph the site of 9/11.

I'm pretty sure there were many police photographers there who's job it is to photograph a crime scene, so there was no need for Joel Meyerowitz to be there with his 8x10 camera, but then again the subject found him and he took the photos... and for the rest of his life and later in the future he would be known as the 'only' photographer on 9/11 site, incorrectly.

 

[giganova]

These "conflict photographers" (for a lack of a better word) are a special breed. I always wondered how they "tick" and how they can be so fearless, sometimes without compassion for the many victims and human suffering they see.

I was stunned when I watched the HBO documentary Terror at the Mall about the Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi in 2013. The surveillance footage that they used for the film shows how Goran Tomasevic (Reuters) captured the attack on camera. He said that he heard of the attack and called his wife to bring his cevlar helmet and cameras while he was on route to the shopping mall. He then went into the mall with the first brave local police officers who decided not to wait for the Swat team, and he exposed himself to great harm without any fear. In the footage of the surveillance videos, you can even see how he pulls a little girl to safety while he makes pictures with his camera, and he even pulls a police officer to safety who got shot.

To be honest, I was a little bit disgusted by Sebastiao Salgado when I saw the film The Salt of the Earth. He just got married, had a newly born, and he takes off for war-torn Africa for months/years and leaves his family alone. I guess these "conflict photographers" are a special breed.

 

[Hsg]

Don McCullin is photography's Goya.

 

[Hsg]

Nice listen here. NPR's Terry Gross interviews Abbass. He's an interesting guy with a colorful personality.
When asked about his name.. "why do you use one name..?" .. he answers.. "why do you need two?"

http://www.npr.org/2015/11/19/45663...-chronicles-what-people-do-in-the-name-of-god

His a very good photographer, very underrated. His b&w images are beautiful, which is sort of distracting from his theme of religious intolerance.