And the walls will come crashing down.
Author : Greg Marinovich / Joao Silva
Title : The Ban Bang Club
Published : 30/11/2012
Pages : 336
Genre : Autobiography
Publisher : Cornerstone Digital
The Bang-Bang Club was a group of four young war photographers, friends and colleagues: Ken Oosterbroek, Kevin Carter, Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva, war correspondents during the last years of apartheid, who took many of the photographs that encapsulate the final violent years of racist white South Africa. Two of them won Pulitzer Prizes for individual photos. Ken, the oldest and a mentor to the others, died, accidentally shot while working; Kevin, the most troubled of the four, committed suicide weeks after winning his Pulitzer for a photograph of a starving baby in the Sudanese famine.
Once again I have returned to the world of Autobiographies this time with infamous Bang Bang Club of South Africa. A name I would point out not of there own coshing but one given to them by a fellow journalist. Going into this book I knew little of apartheid and the events that took place in South Africa in the early nineties. What led me to read this book was a picture that many people have seen the world over. One that had haunted me ever since I had seen it many years ago. It wasn't however until recently that I discovered the man who took the photograph had committed suicide not long after winning an award for it. I started to do some research about Kevin Carter and the photo he had taken this, in turn, lead me to the small group of South Africans photographers who had risked everything to show the world a conflict that was tearing the country apart.
As the book start the author threw me in at the deep end with an inability to swim in these unfamiliar waters. Within moments Greg and a fellow photograph Ken Oosterbroek are lying shot on a township street in the middle of a gunfight between peacekeepers and local opposition fighters. It defiantly grabbed my attention. But while they describe the scene in intense detail little context is given. It is only as I moved forward through the book and back in time did it reveal the incredible story of how these two men and the rest of the little club came to be there on that fateful day.
Primarily this is a book about a ragtag group of people who were using old cameras to try and capture a pivotal moment in their countries history. Between the two authors, they manage to give an unflinching account of their time leading up to the election that would end apartheid. While the style of the book is easy to read the subject matter for me was definitely not. There where a couple of time I had to put the book down just to take a break from the scenes that were being shown to me. The photos they captured would change the way the world saw South Africa. In the process of getting these photos there, actions seemed at times to verge on insanity. But for the most part none of them could let go of the job they had chosen to take on addicted to the hunt for the next image. But like all junkies, they also suffered the side effects of their dangerous habit.
Not all of them would make it out alive and the ones that did were left with both physical and emotional damage that will stay with them the rest of there lives. None more so than Kevin Carter who under growing press from both outside forces and the demons he carried in his own mind chose to end his life. For me this sets up the great underlying theme of the book how do you justify your actions as a war photographer. whatever image you supply to the papers is of another's death some atrocity committed on a fellow human being. I think one of the powerful messages this book gave me is that you can't. There is no amount of rationalization that can heal these wounds all you can do is learn to live with it and carry that weight the best you can.
Whilst this books primary job is telling the story of the bang bang club it gave me an illuminating insight into a time and place I knew little about. It sits alongside their own story giving insight into the key events that took place and the people that made them happen. Both topics are fascinating on there own but combined make this book a force to be reckoned with. This for me was a very emotional read taking me right into the heart of darkness. A mixture of obsession and the clashing of political ideas this is a book that will open your eyes to not only the story behind some of the most iconic images of that decade, but also shows the human toll that was shed in blood and tears to end a far-right governments control of a country.
As the book start the author threw me in at the deep end with an inability to swim in these unfamiliar waters. Within moments Greg and a fellow photograph Ken Oosterbroek are lying shot on a township street in the middle of a gunfight between peacekeepers and local opposition fighters. It defiantly grabbed my attention. But while they describe the scene in intense detail little context is given. It is only as I moved forward through the book and back in time did it reveal the incredible story of how these two men and the rest of the little club came to be there on that fateful day.
Primarily this is a book about a ragtag group of people who were using old cameras to try and capture a pivotal moment in their countries history. Between the two authors, they manage to give an unflinching account of their time leading up to the election that would end apartheid. While the style of the book is easy to read the subject matter for me was definitely not. There where a couple of time I had to put the book down just to take a break from the scenes that were being shown to me. The photos they captured would change the way the world saw South Africa. In the process of getting these photos there, actions seemed at times to verge on insanity. But for the most part none of them could let go of the job they had chosen to take on addicted to the hunt for the next image. But like all junkies, they also suffered the side effects of their dangerous habit.
Not all of them would make it out alive and the ones that did were left with both physical and emotional damage that will stay with them the rest of there lives. None more so than Kevin Carter who under growing press from both outside forces and the demons he carried in his own mind chose to end his life. For me this sets up the great underlying theme of the book how do you justify your actions as a war photographer. whatever image you supply to the papers is of another's death some atrocity committed on a fellow human being. I think one of the powerful messages this book gave me is that you can't. There is no amount of rationalization that can heal these wounds all you can do is learn to live with it and carry that weight the best you can.
Whilst this books primary job is telling the story of the bang bang club it gave me an illuminating insight into a time and place I knew little about. It sits alongside their own story giving insight into the key events that took place and the people that made them happen. Both topics are fascinating on there own but combined make this book a force to be reckoned with. This for me was a very emotional read taking me right into the heart of darkness. A mixture of obsession and the clashing of political ideas this is a book that will open your eyes to not only the story behind some of the most iconic images of that decade, but also shows the human toll that was shed in blood and tears to end a far-right governments control of a country.
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