Sunday, I spent the day at the Henry’s photo show. Highlights include seeing a presentation by Deeanne Fitxmaurice, Pullitzer Prize-winning photojournalist, formerly with the San Francisco Chronicle, buying some graduated neutral density filters and an iPhone Gorrillapod, and checking out a Canon 7D outfitted with a follow focus rig on a rail.
Deeanne is a really good photographer but a great photojournalist because she is a keen and sensitive observer of people with a knack for forming relationships of trust. She’s very likeable. She won her Pullitzer Prize for covering the story of a young boy, Saleh, who was injured in Iraq when he picked up a ball on a playground that turned out to be a bomb. His older brother was killed trying to protect him by identifying that it was a bomb and trying to take it away from him. His father, Rahim, brought him to the local doctor, who said he would die; to the city doctor, who said he would die; to the American military doctor, who said he could only be saved in the US; and, finally, brought him to the US to save his life.
Saleh received life-saving surgery in Oakland where Deeanne met him. Over several weeks, after gaining their trust, Deeanne documented the courage and love of Rahim and Saleh. Meanwhile, in Iraq, Saleh’s mother and siblings faced their own challenges. Their neighbours, seeing how Rahim had been able to take Saleh to the US for treatment, assumed that could only mean that Rahim must be an American spy. They ransacked the home and drove Saleh’s mother and siblings into hiding. Rahim and Saleh obtained asylum in the US, thanks in part to Deeanne’s newspaper coverage, clippings of which had been attached to their application for asylum. Then, they managed to arrange to have the family brought out of Iraq safely, transported to the US and reunited.
It was a very touching story. It left me with a renewed sense of the power and importance of photography and inspired me to shoot these sunset photos later that evening.
