Time to share a collection of images I took from my trip to the Madrid Labor Day Festival with Teresa. I’ve always wanted to watch a Civil War re-enactment and this was my chance.
It was interesting to watch and now I’ve done it, I’m not sure I need to do it again. I would do it again, but I don’t need to search one out again. If I did, I would hope it was one where the background was a little better. One where the suspension of disbelief is better to hold on to. Not that the bags tournament at Gettysburg wasn’t legendary. They still talk about that barbecue contest at Bull Run. So those activities in the background do hold up to historic muster. Some of the other stuff, not so much.
Here are some pictures:
Now that I’ve had a taste of fake combat photography, I might become addicted to it. Also, I don’t understand, but have deep admiration for combat photographers.
There are a few movies about combat photographers. I’ve watched a couple lately and if you are interested I’d recommend you check them out.
The first is THE BANG-BANG CLUB. It is a fictionalized account of the true story of a group of 4 friends that did combat photography in South Africa during the apartheid period. Between when Nelson Mandela was released from prison until the 1994 elections. This is the lesser of the two movie as it tends to sensationalize combat photography and make it seem more like the photographers are doing it for an adrenaline rush than for photojournalism.
One of the members of the Bang-Bang Club was Kevin Carter. He took one of the most famous photographs of the last 50 years. It was the picture of the vulture stalking a starving child in the Sudan. Unless you’ve lived in a cave, you have seen the picture. He won the Pulitzer Prize for the image. Four months after winning the Pulitzer, Kevin Carter took his own life. He was 33 years old.
His suicide note read:
I’m really, really sorry. The pain of life overrides the joy to the point that joy does not exist. …depressed … without phone … money for rent … money for child support … money for debts … money!!! … I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings & corpses & anger & pain … of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen, often police, of killer executioners … I have gone to join Ken if I am that lucky.
Kevin Carter
The Ken in the note was Ken Oosterbroek. Another member of the Bang-Bang Club that was killed accidentally by South Africa’s National Peacekeeping Force.
Another great combat photographer movie is the biopic of Lee Miller. Lee Miller had one of the most fascinating lives in history. She was a famous model, spent time with surrealist Man Ray, helped to rediscover the dark room technique known as solarisation, and became one of the few female combat photographers of WWII. That barely skims the surface.
She was famous for taking a self-portrait in Hitler’s bathtub, coincidentally on the same day that Hitler committed suicide. But it was her pictures of the horrors of the concentration camps in Buchenwald and Dachau that she is best remembered.
The movie LEE reveals that her children never knew of her time as a combat photographer. They didn’t know until they discovered trunks full of her WWII images in an attic after her death. You can tour the farmhouse where she lived up until her death in 1977. It is on my list of things I want to see someday. Except, it is in England, so that makes it difficult.
In some ways she reminds me of the great street photographer Vivian Maier. In that they were both women in a field dominated by men. Both were incredible photographers. But also that much of their photography wasn’t revealed until after their deaths. With Vivian Maier, that accounts for almost all of her works. If you are curious about her, I highly recommend the documentary FINDING VIVIAN MAIER.
I suppose it is about time to reveal some Pufferbilly Days images from last year next!
This is crazy timing for you to publish this today.
My biological grandfather (paternal side) was a WW2 photographer for the Army. Just last night, I found how I could search up his photos from the Philippines, and spent hours looking at some. There are so many more to go.
Your information about war photography was well-timed for me – thank you!
I think you meant to lead your post with telling me how brave it is to be a fake combat photographer!
That is an amazing story about your Grandpa. I’d love to see some of those pictures. Can you get any printed. I would put some up if I were you.
If you are interested, THE BANG-BANG CLUB is currently streaming on Prime. LEE (which is the way better movie) and unfortunately, I’ve sorta ruined the ending for you, is streaming on Hulu.
If you don’t know who Vivian Maier is, she was a street photographer, not a combat photographer, (but that can also be dangerous), FINDING VIVIAN MAIER can be streamed in its entirety on YouTube.