Monthly Archive for April, 2011

Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros: Two of Ten

April 25, 2011 in John’s Bailiwick
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Last Wednesday, according to doctors at Hikma hospital in the beleaguered Libyan port city of Misrata, 10 people were killed in the fighting; 120 others were injured. One of the dead was a Ukrainian doctor; two of the others were the photojournalists Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros. Two of their colleagues, Guy Martin and Michael Christopher Brown also were injured. According to a Washington Post story, they were with a group of rebels in an intense firefight:

“I told them not to gather,” one rebel outside the tent recalled advising the photographers about the dangers of sticking too close together. “They hit groups. I told them not to [stick together].”

Initial reports were that the four had been struck in a mortar attack, an arbitrary target. Later, it was corrected; they had been pin-pointed by a rocket-propelled grenade.

Tim Hetherington (Dec. 5, 1970-April 20, 2011).

Chris Hondros (Mar. 14,1970-April 20,2011).

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Bergman on Fårö: A Testament—Part One

April 18, 2011 in John’s Bailiwick
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The rocky coast of Fårö, near the filming site for “Persona.”

A map of the island of Fårö looks as if it broke off from the tip of Gotland, itself an island in the Baltic Sea off the southeastern coast of Sweden. Getting to Fårö is a challenge; once there, most of the few roads are single lane, dirt ruts with grass growing between the tire tracks. When director Ingmar Bergman first visited while scouting locations for his 1961 film Through a Glass Darkly, he knew he had found the secluded yet enchanted place where he would spend much of the rest of his life. From the completion of his great valedictory film Sarabande (2003), he would remain on the island until his death four years later on July 30, 2007. In one of those quirks that defy logic yet seem after the fact almost poetic— fellow director Michelangelo Antonioni died the same day.

The short summers on Fårö are luxuriant, with native flowers, wild strawberries and mushrooms in profusion. This secluded island has become a Swedish tourist destination, an intoxicating getaway. There is no bank, post office, police or doctor. But Bergman built a small cinema from an old barn, where he screened dailies for the many films he shot there: Persona, Shame, The Passion of Anna, Scenes from a Marriage (appropriately shot in an ex-wife’s house.) Tarkovsky filmed his final Bergman-like film Sacrifice on the island as well.

Bergman directed over fifty films, but it is the rugged sea and landscapes of Fårö seen in his mature films that constitute a powerful visual correlative to his character’s existential crises. Bergman loved the gentle autumn light of Fårö but it is most often the unforgiving and deeply overcast winter light that attracted his and cinematographer Sven Nykvist’s eyes.

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Lynsey Addario: Back From the Brink

April 11, 2011 in John’s Bailiwick
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“You don’t understand. This is history. I have to photograph it now. Later is too late.” New York Times photojournalist Lynsey Addario is talking to Army Captain Dan Kearney at 6 a.m. on the side of a mountain in the dawning Korengal Valley of northeastern Afghanistan. It is fall, 2007, and Kearney’s forces have dropped into a village to confront insurgents following nighttime bombing by American planes. There likely has been “collateral damage.” Afghan civilians have been wounded and Addario wants Kearney to help her get to them to document the injuries. Khalid, a seven-year-old boy with shrapnel wounds and watery eyes becomes a haunting portrait that underscores the absurdity of a term like “collateral damage.”

Khalid, age 7, wounded by shrapnel in Korengal Valley, Afghanistan.

At first, the photo was going to be the cover image for a NY Times Sunday magazine feature story. But it was quashed. Then it was to be in the story inside, then on the Times website on a slideshow—also all quashed. Kathy Ryan, the photo editor argued for inclusion on the website; editor–in-chief Gerry Marzorati refused, citing that it could not be proven that Khalid’s and other villagers’ wounds were caused by American bombs; so, the photo was not run despite strenuous pleadings by Addario. Later, Captain Kearney affirmed that most likely the wounds were caused by shrapnel from American bombs.

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