ISSUE 4
5
DEC 2018
10
WAR ISSUE 4
5 Journal
PHotoGRAPHERS
co-founder / Editor David “Dee” Delgado @dee_bx
VICTOR J. BLUE
c0-Founder / designer Katie khouri @katie.khouri
@tanyabindra
COPY EDITOR BIANCA FARROW @ bianca_farrow
Todd Heisler
Contact US hi.fivejournal@gmail.com
@juliusmotalphoto
Follow US @five.journal
@panama_payne
Cover photo © Geraldine Hope Ghelli
5 Journal is a theme-based publication designed to showcase great photography.
Copyright © 2018 All work herein remains copyright of the original artists and has been printed with permission.
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@victorblue
Tanya Bindra
Geraldine Hope Ghelli
@geraldinehopeghelli @heislerphoto
Julius motal
carl Glen Payne
featuring
VICTOR J. BLUE TANYA BINDRA GERALDINE HOPE GHELLI TODD HEISLER MICHAEL KAMBER JULIUS MOTAL CARL GLEN PAYNE pg. 12
pg. 20
pg. 38
pg. 30
pg. 8
pg. 48
pg. 6
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"Cultures that may seem as durable as stone can break like glass, leaving all the things that held them together unattended."
—Anthony Shadid
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CARL GLEN PAYNE 6
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MICHAEL KAMBER 10
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— U.S.
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GUATE SUFFERED A BRUTAL 36 WAR THA MORE TH PEOPLE AND OVER A M
VICTOR 10
EMALA D THROUGH 6 YEAR CIVIL AT KILLED HAN 200,000 D DISPLACED MILLION.
Burning the fields during the sugar cane harvest.
BLUE 10
Victor Blue How did you end up covering war? Well, my start in photojournalism was really because of Guatemala. It is where I went to try and figure out how to take pictures. I was drawn there because of the legacy of the war, and because of the way that legacy was still so present, and visual. It wasn’t a shooting war- it was an aftermath. But the war years had been a disaster for the country, and you could still see that disaster playing out every day.
How do you prepare to photograph a conflict? I try to read a lot. I read back as far as I can, usually a general history, and then as much as I can about what is going on now and that I am trying to cover. Books and major magazine articles, as well as the daily news to keep tabs. If I can I like to read some fiction as well, if it really gets at the feeling of a 14
Marina Sinar sings and prays for her missing son.
place. And I research what work other photographers have done there- both to get a sense of how the country or conflict has been portrayed, and also to see if there are any visual facets I should avoid as tropes or build on to make more interesting pictures.
Can you briefly explain the key players in this conflict? Guatemala suffered through a 36 year civil war that ended in 1996 with the signing of the peace accords there. The roots of the war go back a long way- to the 1954 overthrow of the democratic government there by the CIA and the United Fruit Company. In 1960 some civic minded military leaders left and started a clandestine guerrilla movement, that eventually lined up the Guatemalan communist and student movements. It was a long war, but the most intense part of it came in the early 1980’s, with the government’s scorched earth
counterinsurgency campaign in the indigenous heartland of the country, where they committed genocide against the native population. In 1996 the government and the guerrilla movement, by then united under the banner of the URNG, signed a peace accord that was supposed to demobilize the guerrilla forces and address many of the root causes of the conflict. Of course, that didn’t happen, and it set the stage for another 20 years of crime, violence, exclusion, and impunity.
Have you ever experienced censorship? By the military or your editor? Or self-censorship? I can’t really say I have. I have gotten some pushback for some of the more graphic images I have published from there. Of course there can be issues of access, but I haven’t had someone try to tell me “yes you can publish these pictures, but these other ones, no way.”
how do you deal with fear? Everyone gets scared. If you don’t then you are in trouble, the important thing of course is how you deal with it. I just try to stay calm. Talk with whoever I am working with, make sure we are all seeing and hearing the same things. Try to make smart decisions based on the best information we have, and try not to let too much emotion or fear inform the decision making. The more methodical and careful you are, the more you can get ahold of your fear.
What are some of the most important images from Guatemala? The strange thing about Guatemala is how under covered it was during the war and how much it still is. In the war years very few photographers went there, and it wasn’t a big story in the US. James Nachtwey made some important pictures there on a National
Geographic story in 1987, Robert Nickelsberg went as well. The most important photographer who worked there though was Jean Marie Simon, who published a book called Guatemala: Eternal Spring, Eternal Tyranny. In recent years Jonathan Moller’s book Our Culture is Our Resistance is incredibly important. And the work of Miquel Delwar-Plana on both the exhumations there and gang life are about as good as it gets.
"Keep your head down, keep quiet, and do good work. EverYthing else is baloney."
Do you think you’ll cover another conflict? It kind of depends. Since I started in Guatemala I went on to cover some wars in other places. I am interested in covering stories, ones that capture my imagination and probably to some degree my sense of right and wrong. Sometimes those stories involved armed conflict, but often times they don’t. So maybe I will, or maybe my stories will be about different dynamics. 15
Members of the Mara 18, El Hoyon prison.
What’s your personal opinion of How have you changed after the customary photojournalist’s covering war? role to only document and not to I think I’m a more informed and get involved? understanding person. I can read a I think it’s an important code, more so now than ever. I think by and large photographers still abide by that.We can’t become protagonists in these situations. We have to maintain and believe in our role as messengers. If one wants to become involved, then get some training, be a nurse or a medic. Or join the military and fight. Or work for a refugee agency, or learn logistics. But as photographers, the only justification for our presence is to document the story, usually for posterities sake, sometimes in order to inform policy or opinion as it’s getting made. Anything else to me is getting out of our lane. 16
history of a time or a place and I can imagine a little more clearly what the protagonists went through because I’ve had experiences that brought me closer to it. I think I have a heightened sense of how much we all have to lose. I’ve seen so many folks suffer from forces outside their control, then I come home to our very stable, very rich society and look around and listen and think “Wow, you guys have no idea how bad things could get.” I think I also carry a heavy heart sometimes from it. I don’t believe you can involve yourself, even if it’s just taking pictures, in the life of the
worlds dark places and with people suffering in extremis and not take some of it along with you. I think we carry it with us and we try to do something valuable with that. But it gives us a heavy heart.
Have you ever been upset or disappointed in how your footage was used or edited? A couple of times. Awhile ago I made a lot of pictures about the gangs in Guatemala- those pictures are easy to be kind of sensationalized and they were published at times in ways I didn’t like. One feature I had published of them, the magazine took the intro I wrote and just spliced in sentences to make the story sound more extreme. I was pretty frustrated and I never worked with them again.
Do you feel that the world gets an accurate view of the war through your work? Luckily I’m not the only photographer working in Guatemala, I have a legion of friends and colleagues working there. So between all of us, I think it’s a pretty accurate portrayal of the country and it’s times.
What's the hardest part about leaving a war zone and returning home? It’s that you are gone and the story keeps going regardless. People are still suffering, struggling, and your time with them is up. I never get used to that.
"People
What's next for you?
are still
I’d like to publish a book of my work in Guatemala. Even when I was first starting out and didn’t know what I was doing, I always conceived of what I was doing as a book. I hope I wasn’t wrong.
suffering, struGgling, and your time with them is up. I never get used to that."
Are there any words of wisdom you’d like to pass along? I could think of tons of pieces of advice, but whatever. Keep your head down, keep quiet, and do good work. Everything else is baloney.
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5 journal | 54
Elena Brito Ramirez cooks at home in the village of Cocop, Quiche. On April 16, 1981 Guatemalan soldiers massacred 79 people in the village and burned the houses. 10
FAMILY issue | 89
View more of Victor's work at victorblue.com & @victorblue 10
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A young boy holds up his two fingers, a symbol for Azawad.
Tanya Bindra
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TANYA BINDRA It's 2012, the coup in the south has split the Republic of Mali in two.
MALI CIVIL WAR How did you end up covering the war in mali? I was covering elections in Guinea Bissau when word got out that soldiers had taken over the presidential palace in Bamako, Mali and declared a coup d’état over the state television. I quickly left for Bamako to document the aftermath. I had been following the situation in Mali when two months prior, the MNLA had launched a rebellion in northern Mali declaring an independent 10
home for the Tuareg people. In the wake of the coup and the power vacuum that was left in the south, the MNLA joined forces with Ansar Dine, an al-Qaeda linked group, and took control of the three largest cities of northern Mali – Kidal, Gao, and Timbuktu. Soon after, I moved to Bamako and focused on the stories of those who had been displaced by the occupation. Then in early 2013, as the French launched a military intervention to re-take the north, I followed as Malian and French
forces made their way north, driving out the rebels.
How do you prepare to photograph a conflict? I research everything I can about the conflict, understanding the history, players, and dynamics involved. I make contacts. I continuously check the situation on the ground and try to assess the level of risk involved. I’ve also undergone several hostile environment trainings with the
A Malian soldier takes cover during street battles between radical Islamic rebels and French and Malian
support of RISC, the Rory Peck Trust and the Forum Freelance Fund.
Could you explain the key players in the conflict in Mali? • The Tuareg-led MNLA (Mouvement National de Liberation de l’Azawad) - fight for the independent state of Azawad. There is a long history of Tuareg rebellion in the region that dates back as far as the 1920’s.
• Ansar Dine - the jihadist group that joined forces with MNLA to take over northern Mali. MNLA and Ansar Dine eventually fought against each other for control of the north. Ansar Dine, along with MUJAO, eventually won and controlled all three northern cities. • MUJAO (Mouvement pour l'unicité et le jihad en Afrique de l'Ouest) – offshoot of AQMI (al-Qaeda in the Maghreb)
• The French military • The Malian military • ECOWAS - UN Peacekeeping force that was brought in under the operation termed MINUSMA • EUTM – the European Union Training Mission in Mali that brought in soldiers from over 22 nations
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A Malian soldier stands guard as he is about to patrol Kadji, Mali.
Have you ever experienced censorship? By the military or your editor? Or self-censorship? As newsroom budgets continue to decline, a lot of the assignments that are available in emergencies and conflict zones come from humanitarian organizations. To some degree, one could argue that newspapers have as much of an agenda as an NGO or the UN, but I do wonder what this shift means in terms of the coverage. I’m not sure if I would call it censorship, but work commissioned by NGO’s is often depoliticized. Sometimes calling out specific actors or crimes are discouraged and edited out. This is done for very practical reasons to maintain working relationships between governments and aid organizations - but it also means that the focus of the coverage is more on what is happening right now rather than trying to understand why this is happening in the first place. I’ve 24
also refrained from sending editors certain images if they are graphic without reason or if I think they could be misused in any way.
How do you deal with fear? I listen to it. If something feels off, I move on. It’s not worth it.
Do you think you’ll cover another conflict? Since Mali, I have covered conflict in the Central African Republic, the Boko Haram insurgency in northern Nigeria, and other emergencies such as the Ebola outbreak. I will cover more conflict if it is relevant to the stories and regions I am already covering and if I feel that I can contribute something different to the already existing coverage. I will not seek out a conflict just because it is a conflict. I think that rushing to a crisis in a place that I have not researched, or have not previously
travelled in is dangerous on so many levels - dangerous in terms of personal safety and in terms of the representation of the conflict and the people involved.
What’s your personal opinion of the customary photojournalist’s role to only document and not to get involved? If somebody in front of me is suffering, and if it is within my means to ease that suffering somehow, either by offering some water, lending a hand to someone struggling to wade through water to reach safer shores, accompanying them to the closest clinic in a medical emergency, or by simply active listening, then for sure I will get involved. It’s ridiculous to think that you are excused from doing what you can in the name of supposed journalistic neutrality or integrity. You do what you can. It is a
mali civil war
Members of the Women's Association of Azawad, supporters of the MNLA, gather for a meeting in Kidal, Mali.
a fine line however, and if a journalist does get involved, hopefully it is genuine and not merely performative.
How have you changed after covering war? I realized that I took some serious risks in the first few years of working. I won’t do that again. I don’t have the same things to prove to myself and I am more aware of the consequences. I am more cautious in every aspect of my life. I’ve also started questioning the value of journalism in general. It can be voyeuristic and desensitizing. It can work to confirm essentialist narratives we have about the “other”. It is a completely necessary but entirely limited form of storytelling. I’m becoming more interested in seeking out other forms and languages that can work to embrace the ambiguity and contradictions of life that traditional photojournalism sometimes does not allow.
Have you ever been upset or disappointed in how your footage was used or edited? Yes, sometimes I don’t have control over how my photos are used or what caption is attached to them. Sometimes I don’t like the edit. It’s the nature of the job. It forces me to make my work as clear and intentional as possible.
What's the hardest part about leaving a war zone and returning home? I haven’t had a consistent base for the past six years so I haven’t really returned home in that way. I do think it was initially difficult to socialize with friends and family that had no context or point of connection to understanding the intensity of the work.
What's next for you? More video work. More personal work. Moving to New York and trying to assemble somewhat normal life.
Are there any words of wisdom you’d like to pass along? In terms of covering conflict or other emergencies, I think it’s important to ask yourself why you want to do it. Know your intentions. Be an expert. Be humble. Be kind.
View more of Tanya’s work at tanyabindra.com & @tanyabindra
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(Left): Two Malian boys watch as French and Malian military patrol the market area of Gao following a battle between militant jihadists and French and Malian forces. (Above): Supporters of the MNLA, the Tuareg separatist group, are seated behind representatives of the Malian state at a Commission of Dialogue and Reconciliation meeting held in Kidal. 10
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When 2nd Lt. James Cathey's body arrived at the Reno Airport, Marines climbed into the cargo hold of the plane and draped the flag over his casket as pas Steve Beck described the scene as one of the most powerful in the process. "See the people in the windows? They sit right there in the plane, watching those to remember being on that plane for the rest of their lives. And they should."
ssengers watched the family gather on the tarmac. During the arrival of another Marine's casket last year at Denver International Airport, Major e Marines. You gotta wonder what's going through their minds, knowing that they're on the plane that brought him home," he said. "They're going 10
At a time when the Pentagon barred photographers from covering the return of military caskets to Dover Air Force Base. Todd Heisler spent a year documenting the work of Major Steve Beck and the Marine Honor Guard who handle family notifications and the funerals of Marines killed during the Iraq War.
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How did you end up covering war? When I started my career as a news photographer I didn't think I'd ever cover a war. But I would argue that 9/11 changed the course of many photographers of my generation. In late 2002, when I was a staff photographer at the Rocky Mountain News, my editor, Janet Reeves, asked if I would do an "embed" with the military for the Scripps Howard News Service should there be a war with Iraq. This was before anyone knew how the embed process would even work. I was hesitant. But as fate would have it, I was at a conference with James Hill, (who had just won a Pulitzer for his work in Afghanistan with the New York Times), and he really encouraged me to do it.
How do you prepare to photograph a conflict? In covering any conflict, it is really important to get as much information as possible about the situation on the ground, ideally from other journalists who have been there. Photographers like Rick Loomis, Carolyn Cole and Chris Hondros were really helpful in giving me advice from how to pack to how everything worked on the ground. I took some first aid training but I should have taken more. Outside of logistics, as with any remote assignment, I make sure I always have a spare camera, enough batteries, the ability to charge them and more than one way to get my photos out. If you can't work or transmit your images there's no reason to be there anymore. But overall, you have take whatever measures are necessary to survive depending on where you are going. If you haven't done it before, find someone who has who is willing to help you.
How do you deal with fear? I found that the one of hardest parts of covering a conflict was agreeing to go. Once the plane takes off you can't turn back. But that was more dread than fear. And there is a certain sense of comfort being on the ground surrounded by people living their lives, immersed in a routine. But there are certainly other elements to deal with-what road to take, what vehicle to ride in, etc. That can be paralyzing if you let it turn into panic.
Todd Heisler
The night before the burial of her husband's body, Katherine Cathey refused to leave the casket, asking to sleep next to his body for the last time. The Marines made a bed for her, tucking in the sheets below the flag. Before she fell asleep, she opened her laptop computer and played songs that reminded her of "Cat," and one of the Marines asked if she wanted them to continue standing watch as she slept. "I think it would be kind of nice if you kept doing it," she said. "I think that's what he would have wanted."
Do you think you’ll cover another conflict? I can't say for sure I would never cover another conflict. But I was never a "war photographer" anyway. I have a small child, too. So I decided awhile back that I wouldn't cover conflict. I had been to Iraq three times, but hadn't seen much combat. As the saying goes, war is 90 percent boredom and 10 percent terror. On my third trip in 2005 the vehicle I was riding in hit a massive IED. We all survived, but it spooked the hell out of me. What haunted me the most was how insignificant my photos right before it happened were. I thought to myself "We are just driving around getting blown up." But that was the reality the US military was dealing with every day at that time. I went back to the US and immersed myself in the "Final Salute"
story that I had already started before the trip. The story kept drawing closer and closer to me. I feel without the experiences I had in Iraq I wouldn't have been able to finish that story. After that experience of being around so much grief related to war, I couldn't bring myself to go back to a war zone. A few years later, in 2011, I ended up in Somalia on a story that required me to go to the front line. I remember thinking to myself maybe I can do this after all. Chris Hondros was in Egypt at the time, then Libya, all the while encouraging me to go as well. And then he and Tim were killed in Misrata. That was it for me. I am in awe of our colleagues who go back again and again after that. You have to commit 100 percent to it. If you have any question in your mind about it then don't go.
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Marine Sgt. Jeremy Kocher stands watch near the body of Lance Cpl. Evenor Herrera in Eagle, as children and adults from the area poured in to pay their respec says the funeral detail is the most difficult mission he's ever done. "I actually start thinking about it the moment I wake up. It's such an important job that I just d
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cts. Like many of the Marines stationed at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, Kocher don't want to mess it up," he said. "I just want it to be perfect."
What’s your personal opinion of the customary photojournalist’s role to only document and not to get involved? I am a journalist, not an activist. And working for a large publication there is a lot of responsibility as to not be seen as pushing some agenda. But I am also a human being. If am the only thing left determining whether someone lives or dies then I think I need to help. But fortunately I haven't been in that situation. The day to day is much more grey, but I think it is important as to not affect the outcome of the story.
Have you ever been upset or disappointed in how your footage was used or edited? One of the most infuriating moments I have had was when my image of Jim Cathey's casket being removed from the plane was stolen and used in a political attack ad. Twice. I found out about it when a relative of his called me in tears after she saw it. We sent cease and desist letters but they waited until the last possible moment to remove the ads. I have otherwise been lucky that the work has been used in a respectful way. But it can be hard to police.
What's the hardest part about leaving a war zone and returning home? I think with any intense story it is hard returning home. You live with it. Iraq was hard to return from because it made you realize what little connection the American public had to it. Military families cut across a such small segment of the population. It was the same group of people going to war deployment after deployment. I think people really did want to know what was happening over there. It just didn't effect their daily lives much and it was jarring to feel that upon returning home.
View more of TODD's work at nytimes.com/by/todd-heisler & @heislerphoto
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PALESTINE
GERAL HO GHE
LDINE OPE ELLI
ISRAEL
Geraldine Hope Ghelli
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How did you end up covering conflict? I ended covering conflict unintentionally when I decided to travel to Jerusalem to cover the news as it related to Donald Trump’s decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is not a violent place. It is a beautiful, quaint, contested city at the heart of a deeply racist, dispute. The occasional violence on the streets of the Old City are manifestations of this disaccord. I knew, that by coming to Jerusalem I’d be in the West Bank as well, so I did come prepared for the weekly clashes that occur between Palestinians and Israeli Army and these are scenarios where violence can escalate quite quickly, or die out pretty hard. Now I am living in Ramallah, West Bank. experienced photographers in the area who cover it regularly. After getting their advice and talking to themmore then I prepare myself by making sure I have the right gear to protect myself from any kind of risky situation. If I am physically going to be in a conflict zone, and put myself in a situation where I can get hurt, Ineed the right equipment for the job. No question.
How do you prepare to photograph a conflict? The very first thing I do to prepare for a conflict, even before thinking about gear, I reaching out to more experienced photographers in the area who cover it regularly. After getting their advice and talking to them more then I prepare myself by making sure I have the right gear to protect myself from any kind of risky situation. If I am physically going to be in a conflict zone, and put myself in a situation where I can get hurt, I need the right equipment for the job. No question. 39
Have you ever experienced censorship? By the military or your editor? Or self-censorship? I have experienced self-censorship while working on my long-term project, Born Twice, which is about the transition of two elder women. On several occasions I found myself photographing the private moments of post sex reassignment operation check-ups. Then and there I photographed everything, but while editing I decided to omit very intimate photographs. To me it didn’t add anything significative to the edit
How do you deal with fear? I am a scaredy-cat and try my best to avoid putting myself in positions where I feel scared. Fear distracts me and I don’t think clearly when it hits. When I’m covering conflict I try my best to listen to my instinct, and my instincts tell me to be smart and not put myself at even more of a potential risk. But my instinct also propels me forward and gives me courage to make photographs in more difficult moments.
Do you think you'll ever cover another conflict? I plan on covering other kinds of conflict, yes. But not frontline warfare, it does not interest me. There are a handful of stories in Africa and the Middle East that I am eager to work on once I have the funds and more experience.
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What’s your personal opinion of the customary photojournalist’s role to only document and not to get involved? As photojournalists, the moment we decide to cover and report on a certain issue is also the moment where we are getting involved. We rely on locals, we are physically in the middle of it and, weather we like it or not, somehow on a small scale change the course of things. I think we have to be as smart as possible and consider how our presence in place affects both those helping us (fixers, drivers, etc), and also the key players involved.
How have you changed after covering war? Covering conflict has made me more of a realist and a pessimist.
What's the hardest part about leaving a war zone and returning home? When I am back home I quickly begin to feel a lull and my urge to go back to Palestine grows inside of me. I left my heart in that place and hope to have the chance to see more of the Middle East for a deeper understanding.
What's next for you? I’m not sure what is next! I do hope for more experiences where I can grow and strengthen my reporting.
View more of Geraldine's work at geraldineghelli.com & @geraldinehopeghelli
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has made me more of a realist and a pessimist."
"Covering conflict has made me
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JULIUS
ho in abse
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MOTAL
ome n entia
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JULIUS MOTAL VISITED IDOMENI REFUGEE CAMP IN GREECE IN 2016. How did you end up covering war? I have photographed the consequences of war, but not war itself. In early 2016, I made several reporting trips to Greece to cover the refugee crisis. I was living in Istanbul at the time, and had read a story about Pakistani migrants who had attempted suicide on the street in Athens. It was an hour long flight to Athens, and I decided that I wanted to see what was happening firsthand. The situation in Greece had worsened dramatically by that point, and the crisis was reaching a crescendo. Macedonia (FYROM) hadn't shut down its border yet, but it was about to. When I arrived at the airport in Athens, I received a message from a friend about a breaking news alert that refugees had attempted to break through the border in the north in Idomeni. That night, I boarded a plane for Thessaloniki with some colleagues. By the next morning, I was in the camp.
How do you prepare to photograph a conflict? I didn't really do much in the way of preparation, though perhaps I should have. 50
Preparing to cover a humanitarian crisis and preparing to cover a war are two different things, I would imagine, though I can't fully say having only covered a humanitarian crisis.
Can you briefly explain the key players in this conflict? There are many: Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, ISIS, the Taliban, the United States, the European Union (Germany specifically) and more. Angela Merkel opened the floodgates when she said in 2015 that any
A boy peeks out from inside a suitcase. Idomeni Refugee Camp, Greece, March 3, 2016.
refugees who could make it to Germany would be granted safe haven. Over a million people made the perilous journey by land and sea in 2015.
working as journalists who would arrive at the airport in Istanbul to find that they couldn't enter the country.
Have you ever experienced censorship? By the military or your editor? Or self-censorship?
How do you deal with fear?
I haven't, at least not that I know of. Living in Turkey, however, meant that the government was always watching. After terrorist attacks, the government would throttle access to sites like Twitter and Facebook, and there would be a media blackout. I knew people
I don't know what I'd feel in a war zone, though in the context of the crisis I was covering, fear was less of a concern. The refugees in Idomeni, the sleepy Greek farming village on the border with Macedonia (FYROM), were removed from the violence they'd experienced back home, but they carried that trauma 51
How do you deal with fear? (continued) with them. What animated me then was anxiety. In particular, anxiety about getting it right. Perhaps fear is wrapped in that, though it had to do with doing right by the people there, than with my own physical safety. The bulk of my work until that point had largely been protests, some politics, as well as arts and culture for a magazine I'd worked for, so my work before I'd gone to Greece didn't have nearly as much depth as my work in Greece.
Do you think you’ll cover another conflict? Whether or not I'll work in a conflict zone remains to be seen, though I do hope to get back to covering more human rights stories. My time in Greece was formative, as anyone who knows me can attest. I talk about that time frequently. Back then, it felt like I was on the front lines of history, and I hope to have the chance to experience that again.
What’s your personal opinion of the customary photojournalist’s role to only document and not to get involved? A photojournalist is already involved by virtue of choosing to work on one story over another. Given the depths of human suffering, I found it increasingly difficult to hide behind the veneer of "Objectivity." More often than not, I wanted to help people more than photograph them. They needed food, water, blankets and clothes more than they needed another lens pointed in their direction. There were people there whose responsibility it was to provide those things, and while I couldn't divorce myself from what I witnessed, I recognized the importance of maintaining some professional distance in order to do my job. I think it's possible to both document and help where appropriate. If someone is in dire need of medical attention, it's not unreasonable to look for someone who can help. Nick Ut, the photographer behind the napalm girl image, took the girl herself, Kim Phuc, to a hospital to make sure she got the medical attention she needed. Documenting aside, there should, I think, be a basic moral obligation to recognize the humanity in the people you're speaking with and photographing, and help if the circumstances call for it. Perhaps the most potent example of this dividing line is Kevin Carter's 1993 image of Kong Nyong, who at the time was a malnourished child in the Sudanese village Ayod. Nyong is hunched over, and a vulture stands on the ground behind him, watching menacingly. Carter took the image, and left a few minutes later. In the time between that image and his death by suicide, Carter was berated for perceived apathy because he didn't help the 52
(Left): A refugee waits on a railing for food along with other refugees. Idomeni Refugee Camp, Greece, March 1, 2016.
child. The truth of the image was that Nyong was at a United Nations food station, and he'd been diagnosed as severely malnourished. An intake bracelet can be seen on Nyong's wrist. Help was all around, and Carter did his part to get the word out. He didn't necessarily need to do more than he did.
How have you changed after covering war? My time in Greece instilled in me the need for empathy, and it is something I have sought to practice with every photo I take. I realized that everything I did had to be in service of the story and the people who made space for me especially because they didn't have to. No one owes a photographer their image. I don't ascribe to the notion that the image must come at the expense of everything and everyone. I mean this particularly in a humanitarian context where the photographer occupies a position of relative power and privilege.
Have you ever been upset or disappointed in how your footage was used or edited? I had no issues with how my photos were used.
What's the hardest part about leaving a war zone and returning home? I was very conscious of this when I was working in Greece. I could walk into the middle of the refugee camp, talk to people, take pictures, and then I could leave. That I could depart as easily as I arrived was a tremendously difficult thing to deal with. There were two nights when I had to stay at a hotel across the border in Macedonia (FYROM). All I had to do was show my passport to the border guard, and I was let through. Meanwhile, a very short distance away, thousands of people could not cross because their passports did not have the same value. Not having experienced a war zone, I can't say the experiences are comparable.
What's next for you? I hope to get back to telling human rights stories. There's a saying that's get batted around, that journalists give a voice to the voiceless, but that's not true. Everyone has a voice. Journalists are more along the lines of amplifiers, megaphones. I want to tell stories that need to be heard.
Are there any words of wisdom you’d like to pass along? Be open to the experiences of others, and recognize that what you're going through isn't about you. It is their story that you're telling, not yours.
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A man looks out from his tent. Idomeni Refugee Camp, Greece, March 3, 2016. 10
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(Left): A wounded man is carried to a medical tent. Idomeni Refugee Camp, Greece, March 4, 2016. Medical NGOs provided critical aid to refugees who fell sick or were wounded. In this image, the man being carried was wounded after he crossed the border into Macedonian (FYROM). He was sent back into Greece and carried to the medical tent. (Above): Reflection in a puddle of refugees waiting for food. Shipping containers served as storage facilities in Idomeni, where volunteers and aid organizations would distribute food to refugees daily. Idomeni Refugee Camp, Greece, March 10, 2016.
View more of Julius's work at juliusmotal.com & @juliusmotalphoto
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CO-FOUNDER & EDITOR
DAVID ‘DEE’ DELGADO Dee is a Puerto Rican independent photographer based in New York City mainly focused on documentary and photojournalism. Delgado's work has been featured in the Jerome Avenue Workers Project, The Bronx Artist Documentary Project, Bronx X Bronx, No Longer Empty, and Eddie Adams XXX. He is also the Recipient of the 2017 Nikon, Bill Eppridge award for excellence and truth in photographic journalism, compassion for humanity, technical expertise and curiosity in the world around us. IG: @dee_bx
CO-FOUNDER & DESIGNER
KATIE KHOURI Katie is a graphic designer and photographer. Khouri's interested in using photography and
design to connect people, and ideas across print, and screen. She's been working as the Bronx Documentary Center's graphic designer since 2012. IG: @katie.khouri Both Dee and Katie are members of the @bronx_ photo_league
We saw that there were talented photographers creating important work that needed to be seen, and we wanted to share it. One of the goals of 5 Journal is to publish a diverse range of photographers, connecting them with a new audience and promoting their stories.
5 Journal welcomes submissions for publication consideration on a rolling basis.
EMAIL hi.fivejournal@gmail.com
INSTAGRAM @five.journal
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