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Sometimes the name of this weblog-journal means that I simply cannot overlook certain stories or acts of publishing.
@ Tim Dirven / Panos Pictures
In the past couple of hours, the Guardian website ran a nine image Guantanamo photo-gallery. The gallery launches from the largest and most prominent rectangle of the new Guardian redesign, i.e. it is the top story on the home page.
I can only assume that this is an editorial decision to keep Guantanamo in people’s minds? After all. we’ve been distracted by healthcare reform in the US, the chancellor’s TV debate in the UK, Israeli obstinacy in the Middle East and a new guise of terrorism in Russia for which our numbed minds must recalibrate.
I can only assume this is the Guardian’s decision because the essay is totally non-descriptive – in that it is nothing new. We know there are Uighurs, Chinese separatists, who shouldn’t be there; we know they play soccer in cages, we know there are well-cushioned shackles bolted to pristine concrete floors; and we know detainees on hunger strike are force-fed Ensure by tube.
All I want to say is that you should look elsewhere for Guantanamo imagery. My Guantanamo: Directory of Photographic and Visual Resources is a good place to start.
I’ve also provided the previous insights which go beyond Dirven’s nine illustrative images:
Suicide at Guantanamo?
Justice Denied: Voices of Guantanamo
Bruce Gilden once went to Guantanamo
Interview: “Jane Smith” Former Gitmo Guard
Paula Bronstein: Guantanamo Detainees Young and Old
“There is a lot of long lens imagery of Guantanamo prisoners in their orange boiler suits, but I don’t know what that’s telling me.”
A Dozen Visits to Guantanamo
‘Guantanamo’ by Paolo Pellegrin
Guantanamo Photo Essay
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None of this reflects on Tim Dirven. Dirven is a good photographer and photojournalist (check out his work on Orthodox Christians in Ethiopia).
It’s simply impossible to produce a novel photo-essay when the Joint Task Force of Guantanamo walks you around the camp … and they do it every week … with different journalists.
The US military’s media detail is as well-drilled as any other detail at Guantanamo. In fact, I’d go as far to say that the media-liaisons are, at this point, the most critical employees on the base.
“No, it was not a random shooting. There was a group of three police officers. One officer took aim and shot Fabienne in the head.”
Fabienne’s father, Osama Cherisma, March 2010
Michael Winiarski and Paul Hansen recently returned to Port-au-Prince with the specific intention of following up on the fortunes of the Cherisma family.
Fabienne's family (left to right): Father, Osama Cherisma, brother Jeff, 18 years, his sister Amanda, 13 years, and mother Amante Kelcy. Photo: Paul Hansen
Following my interview with Winiarski, I had asked rhetorically what the Cherismas may feel about the international coverage of their daughter’s death. I was raising the issue of media and journalists’ responsibilities toward the subjects of their stories, and more specifically I was wondering if the Cherismas would ever be interviewed at length to elaborate on their experiences since that terrible day.
Well, a part answer can be provided in the actions and article of Winiarski and Hansen who published this story on the 13th March. (Swedish original / English translation):
– Osama says he knows the identity of the killer – a high ranking police officer from their own neighbourhood.
– The family have not filed a police report because they are too scared. They say the police are watching them daily.
– They have not talked to local media and only talk to Winiarski and Hansen of Dagens Nyheter because they are foreign journalists.
– Osama dealt with the body directly because he didn’t trust he’d see his daughter again if he handed her corpse over the police and authorities.
– Although their house still stands, it is so destabilised they live in a tent city.
– The schools of Jeff and Amanda, Fabienne’s brother and sister, were both destroyed during the earthquake.
– Jeff, Amanda and their mother Amante all – understandably – still feel extreme pain and emotion. Osama cannot sleep.
– Fabienne is buried in Zorange, north of Port-au-Prince. It is the village of Fabienne’s grandmother.
– – –
ALSO IN THE ‘PHOTOGRAPHING FABIENNE’ SERIES
Part One: Fabienne Cherisma (Initial inquiries, Jan Grarup, Olivier Laban Mattei)
Part Two: More on Fabienne Cherisma (Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
Part Three: Furthermore on Fabienne Cherisma (Michael Mullady)
Part Four: Yet more on Fabienne Cherisma (Linsmier, Nathan Weber)
Part Five: Interview with Edward Linsmier
Part Six: Interview with Jan Grarup
Part Seven: Interview with Paul Hansen
Part Eight: Interview with Michael Winiarski
Part Nine: Interview with Nathan Weber
Part Ten: Interview with James Oatway
Part Eleven: Interview with Nick Kozak
Reporter Rory Carroll Clarifies Some Details
Part Fourteen: Interview with Alon Skuy
Part Fifteen: Conclusions
PART EIGHT IN A SERIES OF POSTS DISCUSSING PHOTOGRAPHERS’ ACTIONS AND RESPONSES TO THE KILLING OF FABIENNE CHERISMA IN PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI ON THE 19TH JANUARY 2010.
Michael Winiarski is the US correspondent for Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter and colleague of photographer Paul Hansen (interviewed in part seven).
Osama Cherisma carries Fabienne's body down Boulevard Jean Jacques Dessaline, followed by his son, Jeff (18) and his daughter, Amanda (13). Photo: Paul Hansen
What were the dates of your stay in Haiti?
I arrived to Port-au-Prince in the morning of January 14th. I flew in from Washington (where I’m posted as correspondent for the newspaper Dagens Nyheter) through Santo Domingo. I left Haiti late on January 21st, by car to Dominican Republic.
Fabienne was shot at approximately 4pm. What had you reported on earlier that day?
Actually about the deteriorating security situation and looting in central Port-au-Prince.
Did you see Fabienne get shot?
No, I was by the car at Boulevard Jean-Jacques Dessalines when our driver came and told me that a girl had been shot. When I saw her she lay in the street.
How long was it until her family and father arrived to carry away Fabienne’s corpse?
When I saw her, the father was already there. I checked my watch which was exactly 16.00pm, so I assume she was shot at least 10-15 minutes earlier.
How many other journalists/photographers did you see at the scene? Do you know the names of these other media people?
Apart from Paul Hansen from Dagens Nyheter, I saw the Danish photographer Jan Grarup and the Reuters and AFP guys. I think I was the only foreign writer/reporter, and there also was a Haitian man who volunteered with translating some things the father said.
How was the atmosphere? How did others behave?
It was of course tense, with lot of crying, screaming and lamenting as we followed the crowd to the house of the Cherisma family. But the immediate threat of more shootings had subsided – no police were to be seen around us.
Did you discuss the tragedy with Paul or other journalists?
At that point only with Paul, and we did not hesitate that we should report the story.
Any other thoughts?
In Sweden, there were ethics discussions about Fabienne [and the photographs] by magazines and bloggers.
SWEDISH MEDIA DISCUSS THE ETHICS OF PUBLISHING PAUL HANSEN’S IMAGE OF FABIENNE
So upsetting is the photograph of a dead young girl, that Swedish magazines and bloggers responded to and questioned it’s use for Winiarski’s article (Swedish original / English translation).
The article humanised Fabienne and communicated the injustice and immediate devastation her death caused. It ends with a description of the family’s grief:
Fabienne’s little sister, Samantha, runs adjacent to [her father who carries Fabienne’s dead body] and roars in grief. It is only later Osama Cherisma will completely absorb what has happened. Then he will sit down and stare blankly ahead. But now he cries curses at the police who he believes took aim at his daughter.
We follow the weeping and despaired small group down the street, through the business district, to Fabienne’s home. It is only here when Fabienne’s mother Amante Kelcy hear what has happened to her girl. She falls apart in a crying, “Why? “Why? Why?”
Ever since the shot, the police are not to be seen. No police dare to enter these streets after a member of its rank and file killed one of the neighborhood children. No ambulance will be summoned. There is still no one to send. And Fabienne is already dead. Unnecessarily.
Osama Cherisma curses the police. “They are like animals, they are animals, “he says. “Why should my daughter pulled away in the prime of their youth?”
Fabienne's younger sister, Amanda Cherisma (13) and older brother, Jeff Cherisma (18) over the body of their sister. Photo: Paul Hansen
Dagens Nyheter, to its credit, acknowledged the concerns and answered them directly in an editorial. I paraphrase due to the vagaries of translation:
We are obviously very reluctant to publish pictures of the deceased. A reader emailed and questioned how we would handle the issue if the image depicted a fifteen year old girl in Sweden. The answer is that the situation in Sweden is not comparable – if Sweden were affected by a disaster of equal scale of that in Haiti, then publication discussions would be based on the circumstances of that event.
How families are affected by publication is another important issue to consider in the decision.
DN’s mission is to take the world closer to readers, even when reporting can bring discomfort. Michael Winiarski’s and Paul Hansen’s reporting in connection with this individual tragedy is strong and worthy – and not at all speculative. In our view, it’s publication was important.
The statement above can be construed as a standard media response – that while Dagens Nyheter is aware of the distress Hansen’s photographs may cause it readers AND the deceased’s family, it goes ahead with publication in the interests of information.
Respect is given in that the need for respect is articulated. Is this enough?
I remain a little uneasy. The photographers I’ve interviewed for this series have given their opinions, but still I wonder what Fabienne’s family actually think – especially eight weeks later – of the international coverage of Fabienne’s death.
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ALSO IN THE ‘PHOTOGRAPHING FABIENNE’ SERIES
Part One: Fabienne Cherisma (Initial inquiries, Jan Grarup, Olivier Laban Mattei)
Part Two: More on Fabienne Cherisma (Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
Part Three: Furthermore on Fabienne Cherisma (Michael Mullady)
Part Four: Yet more on Fabienne Cherisma (Linsmier, Nathan Weber)
Part Five: Interview with Edward Linsmier
Part Six: Interview with Jan Grarup
Part Seven: Interview with Paul Hansen
Part Nine: Interview with Nathan Weber
Part Ten: Interview with James Oatway
Part Eleven: Interview with Nick Kozak
Part Twelve: Two Months On (Winiarski/Hansen)
Reporter Rory Carroll Clarifies Some Details
Part Fourteen: Interview with Alon Skuy
Part Fifteen: Conclusions
A volunteer from Simelela, an organization dealing with sexual violence, uses a doll to teach children about inappropriate touching and sexual abuse, at a pre-school in Cape Town’s Khayelitsha township February 17, 2010. REUTERS/Finbarr O’Reilly
Rape is a very unpleasant topic to address. Many rape victims never discuss an assault and as such opportunities to recover may dwindle with time. One assumes adults are at least equipped to deal with the emotional trauma of discussion and therapy.
What of a child victim? Child rape, an unconscionable act, not only subjects innocents to violent assault but takes advantage of the child’s (probable) lack of perspective to the sadism to which they fall victim.
Finbar O’Reilly reported today on the child rape epidemic of South Africa.
“South Africa has the highest rate of rape in the world, including child and baby rape, with one person estimated to be raped every 26 seconds, according to aid groups and local organizations.”
It is noteworthy that O’Reilly’s dispatch hit the wires the same day artist Zanele Muholi condemned Lulu Xingwana, a South African government minister, for condemning the morality of Muholi’s exhibition.*
Muholi understood Xingwana’s objection as typical of South African society in which sex and sexuality are not discussed and yet sexual violence is prevalent.
Muholi’s images are tender, intelligent. That they’d compel a government minister to publicly disassociate herself is a sign of how taboo issues of sexual empowerment are in South Africa. Muholi’s images are not problematic; if anything, they are an essential part of the solution to opening up collective awareness and ownership of one’s own body.
* I posted earlier today on Zanele Muholi’s work.
In a blog post, Shawn Rocco covered yesterday’s exoneration of Greg Taylor
Rocco says, “Exonerating innocent men is a storyline that is sadly becoming all too common in this state over the past few years. Darryl Hunt, Joseph Abbitt and Dwayne Dail were in the courtroom today to hear the verdict and welcome another man into their unique group. DNA (or lack thereof) helped their cases. It did to a certain degree with Taylor. But it was the lack of any substantial evidence that led the the three-judge panel to their decision.”
© Shawn Rocco
For more the full article read here and Rocco’s accompanying photo gallery is here.
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Regarding exonerations, I have previously featured James Estrin’s New York Times story on Jeffrey Deskovic.
PART FOUR IN A SERIES OF POSTS DISCUSSING PHOTOGRAPHERS’ ACTIONS AND RESPONSES TO THE KILLING OF FABIENNE CHERISMA IN PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI ON THE 19TH JANUARY 2010.
On the 3rd February, Adjustment Layer posted an account by photographer Edward Linsmier. It is the fullest eye-witness account by a photographer of events surrounding Fabienne’s death that I have read.
The account doesn’t name the girl as Fabienne. Her name has been available from different sources for some time.
Also worth noting, Linsmier talks of Nathan Weber, another photographer present. I was not aware Weber was at the scene.
Fabienne Cherisma lies dead after being shot in the head by police. January 19th, 2010. © Edward Linsmier
LINSMIER’S ACCOUNT
Read the full account on Adjustment Layer.
Linsmier opens with the excess necessary to hook the reader, “We heard gunshots and knew we needed to be closer. We processed the thought for a split second and we took off running with our fixer not far behind.” and, “Emboldened by the electricity of the chaos, we advanced further and saw people laying on the ground with police yelling and waving guns in the air and shouting commands.”
Linsmier goes on, “We retreated several steps and waited behind a truck for several seconds until the police were distracted. I saw another photographer up the road and decided that we needed to make a move closer to him so we could make some pictures.”
(One presumes this other photographer is Weber?)
“We followed … onto a downed roof top that led to the exposed insides of several shops filled with the scavenging and excited crowd. We were making pictures.”
“The fixer motioned for me to come because the police had caught a man and had him down on the ground. I, in turn, motioned for my friend and fellow photographer, Nathan Weber, who was still on the slanting concrete rooftop to follow me to the commotion down the road. I yelled his name and he looked at me with a blank stare. Nathan is someone who is on point in a situation such as this. He communicates quickly, clearly and with authority when needed. He is no stranger to photographing in similar situations but something of this magnitude was new to both of us. I knew he heard me and figured he would be right behind me as I headed down to the commotion.”
Linsmier returns to see Fabienne’s body, “[I] climbed back up on the roof to see Nathan in almost the exact same spot where I last saw him, except he was looking at a girl who was lying face down on the slanting concrete roof. As best as I can recall, Nathan spoke in short sentences, “I saw her fall. I thought she tripped and knocked herself out. She’s dead. Fuck. She got shot. I was right here.”
“The decision to continue making photographs was instinctual. More photographers showed up and we were all making pictures, composing the dead girl in the foreground as the looters continued to walk past her, almost over her, carrying whatever they could. Several men stopped to turn her over, seemingly to identify the body. They gently took her arms and almost had to twist her just a little to face her upward. They looked at her with little emotion and left.”
This record of events is interesting because it doesn’t report the bypassers going through Fabienne’s pockets as the Guardian did here.
“She had been shot in the head. From what I could tell, the bullet entered her cheek and exited from the back of her head. The blood had been pooling in some picture frames she was carrying when she fell. After the men moved her, the blood began to run down the slanting concrete roof towards us. We all were still making pictures. To anybody else, it must have looked sick, a crowd of photographers vying for the best position to tell the story of the death of a girl.”
“Just about the time that I figured the pictures were over and we should leave, a frantic man and several others emerged from the crowd. It was the family of the girl. The father hoisted her onto his shoulders and began the journey of bringing his daughter home. The photographers followed. Ordinarily, this would be a scene that hardly anyone could bare to photograph. They were experiencing probably some of the most painful moments of their lives but they knew why we were there. Not once did anyone give a mean look; not once did I hear anyone question why all the photographers were following this family’s grief so intently and so closely. It was part of the story.”
THOUGHTS
The underlining above is mine. It highlights the photographers’ conscious activities. I make no judgments here. Linsmier is aware of the sensitivity of the situation. Like, Mullady, yesterday, Linsmier’s candour should be appreciated.
Photographs are deceiving. I should know that by now. When I began my inquiry into Fabienne’s death, I assumed there was a scarcity of images. I presumed only Grarup and Garcia Rawlins had witnessed and recorded the incident.
It is clear, now, that there was more photography and activity. On the scene, at various points, were six photographers – Jan Grarup, Olivier Laban-Mattei, Edward Linsmier, Michael Mullady, Carlos Garcia Rawlins and Nathan Weber.
I’d like to state that I have no agenda here, I am simply interested in constructing the scene in a wider context. Photographers don’t work in a vacuum and we must demand to turn their images inside out to understand the context in which the images were created.
Mining the conditions of production is a position I have held consistently throughout my writing on Prison Photography. I am a great admirer of Errol Morris’ writings that demystify photography; it is in that spirit I am pursuing this inquiry.
Thanks to Melissa Lyttle for the note on Edward’s interview.
– – –
ALSO IN THE ‘PHOTOGRAPHING FABIENNE’ SERIES
Part One: Fabienne Cherisma (Initial inquiries, Jan Grarup, Olivier Laban Mattei)
Part Two: More on Fabienne Cherisma (Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
Part Three: Furthermore on Fabienne Cherisma (Michael Mullady)
Part Five: Interview with Edward Linsmier
Part Six: Interview with Jan Grarup
Part Seven: Interview with Paul Hansen
Part Eight: Interview with Michael Winiarski
Part Nine: Interview with Nathan Weber
Part Ten: Interview with James Oatway
Part Eleven: Interview with Nick Kozak
Part Twelve: Two Months On (Winiarski/Hansen)
Reporter Rory Carroll Clarifies Some Details
Part Fourteen: Interview with Alon Skuy
Part Fifteen: Conclusions
PART TWO IN A SERIES OF POSTS DISCUSSING PHOTOGRAPHERS’ ACTIONS AND RESPONSES TO THE KILLING OF FABIENNE CHERISMA IN PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI ON THE 19TH JANUARY 2010.
Following up on last months post about Fabienne Cherisma’s murder, it is apt to note Natasha Elkington’s Reuters Photographers blog post.
Amidst a very serious opinion piece about the hardships of childhood in Haiti and Kenya, Elkington includes a comment from the photographer of the renowned image of Fabienne Cherisma.
I spoke to the Reuters photographer in Haiti, Carlos Garcia Rawlins, who took the pictures of Fabianne to find out who shot her and why. He had no answers. By the time he got there she was already dead. She could have been shot by the police or armed security guards hired to protect property, he said. Witnesses said they didn’t know if she was targeted or hit by a stray bullet when police fired into the air to disperse a hungry mob.
What Rawlins did say is that people around her continued looting and would only stop for a moment to look at her body. “I couldn’t believe the indifference of the people around her,” he said.
Which is a different response to that of Jan Grarup.
– – –
ALSO IN THE ‘PHOTOGRAPHING FABIENNE’ SERIES
Part One: Fabienne Cherisma (Initial inquiries, Jan Grarup, Olivier Laban Mattei)
Part Three: Furthermore on Fabienne Cherisma (Michael Mullady)
Part Four: Yet more on Fabienne Cherisma (Linsmier, Nathan Weber)
Part Five: Interview with Edward Linsmier
Part Six: Interview with Jan Grarup
Part Seven: Interview with Paul Hansen
Part Eight: Interview with Michael Winiarski
Part Nine: Interview with Nathan Weber
Part Ten: Interview with James Oatway
Part Eleven: Interview with Nick Kozak
Part Twelve: Two Months On (Winiarski/Hansen)
Reporter Rory Carroll Clarifies Some Details
Part Fourteen: Interview with Alon Skuy
Part Fifteen: Conclusions
Prison Photography 