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Horst Faas - Part 7
Summary:
In the seventh and final and possibly most meaningful installment of this special FotoTV series, historic journalist and photographer Horst Faas touches poignantly on the subject of the ethics of reporting, specifically in photojournalism.
Although many of his photos were controversial, striking scenes of torture and execution, his monumental and meaningful photos did not go without being honored as he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.
Faas felt it was his duty to document the actual events taking place. No scene too horrific, no event too overwhelming could make him turn back. Even when it was most gruesome, he felt privileged to be there, giving information to the rest of the world hoping to touch upon their humanness, hoping to make even the slightest of difference with his photos.
One most unforgettable story is that of the photos which brought Faas the Pulitzer Prize, the story of the torture and execution of four people who were thought to be mere students or businessmen from another ethnical group, just before Christmas in Dhaka, Bangladesh at an ordinary public political rally. One by one, the unfortunate individuals were tortured for hours at a public square right before his eyes. It was a dilemma for Faas to just photograph and not to help the individuals, but his human decency is what brought him through this harrowing experience. He was compelled to show the world this heinous act. If the torturing were not enough the individuals were then slaughtered with a bayonet, saving a direct stab in the chest for last to ensure the four died a slow and painful death.
Listening to Faas speak we know his photos were not shot in vain, because the atrocities he witnessed were seen around the world, making an incredible impact on public opinion in the United States, even changing the thinking of the then president prime minister of India, Indira Gandhi, just enough to give orders to avoid such incidents as these in the future, if even only for a week. Horst Faas's photos not only informed millions, showing what actually happened at many dangerous politically spots around the world, his photos possibly saved lives.
Horst Faas - Part 6
Summary:
In the sixth installment of this special FotoTV series, historic journalist and photographer Horst Faas discusses his career and how he went from being a photojournalist to become a photo manager.
Faas explains that as the years went by his back and knees began to suffer from all of the heavy equipment and cases he had carried while on assignment, a prerequisite for a photojournalist, who had to work on their own with no assistants. He began to contemplate continuing on in the way he had been doing for so many years or to move to a different business altogether. Not wanting to change careers or branches, Faas took an offer from AP to manage the European, African, and Mideast offices, based out of London. He immediately thought of the knowledge he could share with news photographers and the wonderful traveling opportunities that came with the position, as Faas enjoyed that aspect of photography very much.
So up went his cameras on the hooks on the walls and he began a long stint as a photo manager which found him right in the middle of the evolution of press photography. Keyboards and simple computers with monitors were the new typewriter and Faas even contributed to developing the first electronic darkroom, which actually paved the way for scanning and digital photography.
Horst Faas - Part 5
Summary:
In the fifth installment of this special FotoTV series, historic journalist and photographer Horst Faas shares what it was like working on international assignments around the world and the safety measures and specific gear that needed to be considered in order to save the life of a photographer in the middle of a war or conflict.
Flack jackets and helmets were standard issue for photojournalists. Even though Faas always wore the life saving gear he was injured and escaped death nearly losing a leg. However, it was one nineteen year-old medic with hardly any experience who made the critical decision not to amputate Faas's leg. Even though Faas wore the standard boots with metal soles which protected soldiers and photojournalists from the hidden bamboo spikes placed in the ground, it was actually a large camera lens that saved his life and legs. The lens that he was carrying was between his legs at the time of a harrowing explosion of shrapnel and metal. The lens caught the blow of the flying shards, but he was injured despite this, as his legs were pelted with the numerous sharp metal daggers.
Another harrowing, but touching story Faas talks about is the one and only photo he shot of a south Vietnamese soldier just moments before he is obliterated to pieces by an American bomber, a situation Faas describes as uncanny.
Horst Faas - Part 4
Summary:
In the fourth installment of this special FotoTV series, historic journalist and photographer Horst Faas discuses his career and the technical aspects that enabled him to document some of the most astounding and informative photos while on international assignment for the renowned AP photo agency.
Faas explains that logistics and mechanics were an integral, if not the most important part of photography for him while documenting many wars and conflicts around the world. He spent more time repairing equipment and setting up darkroom equipment than actually photographing. He goes on to say that in comparison to the digital age of today, back then he would depend on simple tools such as screwdriver to ensure the efficiency of his equipment and machines. Everything he carried with him could be taken apart and inspected if needed.
In high humidity regions such as Vietnam it was important to have waterproof containers to carry his equipment in. Transporting metal cases across rivers and wading in knee-deep water was a regular occurrence for Faas, and his metal boxes not only protected his film and equipment against the elements, they were also so durable they could dropped out of helicopters without damaging any of his sensitive gear and materials. The material used to make these boxes were also used by NASA to make their rockets, a fact that was not known to many because NASA considered this information to be classified.
Another important aspect Faas discusses is the logistics of his assignments and his experience with customs when traveling. Unlike the digital age of today, radio transmitters, receivers and satellite telephones took the place of the laptops and cell phones photographers use now to send their pictures and keep in touch with newspapers and magazines. It could take up to an hour to send a single photo, which incidentally had to be sent from a wire service post office, a far cry and huge effort from sending a photo at the click of mouse.
Horst Faas - Part 3
Summary:
In the third installment of this special FotoTV series, historic journalist and photographer Horst Faas shares a little about his career working on international assignments around the world's most dangerous political hot spots, while sharing photos from some of his greatest work from exhibits.
Faas touches poignantly on the subject of political turmoil and unrest between the Vietcong and ordinary village people. Either the civilian population was either for or against the unjust or inhumane ruling, or they were forced into submission if they tried to show support for anyone else but their own government.
Teary eyed, Faas hauntingly explains that he witnessed innocent people suffer horrible and cruel deaths, having their villages burnt down while cuddling their children as they lay burnt death to dying in their arms. There was nothing anybody could do, not even Faas, a photojournalist. All he could do is document the atrocities and hope that his images would be seen around the world and that they would echo his own unimaginable horror at seeing such events taking place to normal civilians with everyday lives, from farmers to housewives, to grandparents.
Often the cities were being bombed by air to surface bombs with Napalm even before the troops marched in. Without much protection or defense it was an unthinkable terror for the villagers. Villages being destroyed, men, women and children being shot to death, whether they tried to flee or just stood their in shock--there was carnage was everywhere the could see.
He also discusses the use of Agent Orange a herbicidal warfare that was used to defoliate the trees and jungles. The effects of the use are horrifying and the results can still be seen today. As Faas explains it, "All wars are Barbaric and Vietnam, which I've seen in great detail was an exceptional barbaric war".
Horst Faas - Part 2
Summary:
In the second installment of this special FotoTV series, historic journalist and photographer Horst Faas discuses his career and the most dangerous international assignments he has been on throughout the world, this time focusing on his time in Vietnam. Faas explains the reason why he was sent to Vietnam by the photo agency AP.
As it turns out, a photographer already stationed there had been duping the public and new agencies by photographing the same missions, soldiers and helicopters over and over again and releasing the photo series over a course of 14 days. Well this did not sit well with the new media and Faas was brought in to due some damage control and take over where the ousted photographer left off. Adventure, danger, and sheer excitement are what Faas experienced in his early photography missions to Vietnam. He found all that was happening around him to be very dramatic, even if there was at times not much action at all excepting lying low in knee deep rice patty fields. But he was in the middle of it all-- between helicopters and the infamous Napalm. He accompanied the troops on inherently perilous helicopter combative missions and was even privy to their daily operations planning.
Faas tells wonderfully vivid and historical stories about Vietnam, some of them heartfelt and personal and some of them documentary in style. It was the monumental and meaningful photos that he took there which enabled him to share his work and talent with the world, which won him the Pulitzer Prize.
Horst Faas - Part 1
Summary:
In this special series, historic journalist and photographer Horst Faas discuses his career and the most dangerous international assignments he has been on throughout the world, specializing in areas of conflict, in particular Vietnam.
Faas shares some of his experience and talks about his exciting and sometimes harrowing jobs covering conflicts in Vietnam and Laos, as well as the Congo and Algeria. Faas describes his time in Algeria, about three or four months, as the most dangerous assignment he has been on because of the terroristic murders and killings in the street. The deaths were in the hundreds.
What was just to be another assignment, his trip to Vietnam turned out to become the central part of his career and a short time turned into 12 years in Vietnam for Faas. It also turned out to be a whole new chapter for him and he we will discuss it more in detail in the next installments.
Paul Fusco
Summary:
Magnum photographer Paul Fusco discusses the inspiration and motivation behind beginning his career and shares agonizing personal stories, as well as images from his heart-wrenching photo essay "Chernobyl Legacy", a series of piercing photographs of intimate and haunting portraits and the terrible loss of human life surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident in 1986--an abominable incident that should never be forgotten.
Fusco's Chernobyl Legacy bears witness to the present-day effects of the horrific nuclear accident that took place in the Ukraine in 1986. More than fifteen years following the disaster, his consuming images document the effects of this tragedy and the lives of the people afflicted by Chernobyl.
Fusco's photographs are insightful and sad, and an incredible documentation of an accident that the world seems to have forgotten. The photographs demonstrate how dangerous nuclear power is and what the real consequences of a nuclear accident are.
Christian Poveda
Summary:
In this film, photojournalist and filmmaker Christian Poveda chronicles his work and discusses filming his documentary, "La Vida Loca", an uncensored and sobering look at the gangs of El Salvador.
La Vida Loca reflects a depressing and hopeless reality, closely following the lives of several gang members. Poveda photographed members and then asked each of them to tell about their lives while he filmed them, the results are an undisturbed and candid account of some of the world's most deadly gang members.
Gangs have existed in El Salvador since the late 1950s, but it wasn't until 1992 when the United States deportation policy went into effect that the groups grew into the super-gangs that they are today, resulting in thousands of deaths.
Poveda spent 16 months shooting the film and was shot and killed in El Salvador, on September 2, 2009, by the street gangs that he filmed for his documentary.
Korean War
Summary:
In this film FotoTV’s founder, Marc Ludwig, talks to photojournalist, David Douglas Duncan about his Korean War photographs, his extraordinary career and the adventures and events he witnessed and recorded.
One of the most influential photographers of the 20th century Duncan was a prominent combat photographer for the United States Marine Corps, perhaps his most famous photographs were taken during the Korean War.
Duncan discusses his photo narrative of the Korean War, while his vivid combat scenes giving us an eyewitness account of the courage and ordeal of the fighting men and what their world was like. At the time of the photographs Duncan was a marine, and therefore most fighting men were completely unaware they were being photographed, while he took pictures of battling and dying men side by side, documenting their many unforgettable warrior faces.
Duncan’s Korean War photographs are truly iconic as they also convey the brotherhood and daily life of an ordinary soldier. He lived with the men following fellow marines through a series of fearful battles taking photographs on the rapidly changing front line.