The Bang Bang Club

Where does our constant hunger for news come from? Whenever I'm online I usually have a couple of tabs open with several newspaper websites, but to be honest, I don't know why. I don't know why I constantly want to see if there are any interesting stories to read about far flung places that do not directly affect my day-to-day life. On the other hand, there are people who constantly put their own lives in danger so that you and I can read what is happening in Libya, Afghanistan and other places.


The film The Bang Bang Club deals with this latter question: why do journalists put themselves into danger to provide us, the rest of the world, with information about what is happening outside of our daily lives.

Greg Marinovich won a Pulitzer Prize for this picture of a Zulu man on fire 

The Bang Bang Club refers to four young South African photographers who documented the final days of Apartheid in South Africa. The photographers reach some level of fame themselves when they win important prizes for their photos, but also receive a huge amount of criticism about their role, or lack thereof, in the situations that they photograph. 


Not all members of the club survive, and one of the surviving members, Greg Marinovich has now completely given up war photography after being injured several times on the job. The other surviving member, Joao Silva has continued to document conflict zones all over the world, but became seriously injured on a recent assignment in Afghanistan where he lost both his legs after stepping on a mine. 

Joao Silva receives a visit from Michelle Obama

I attend a screening of The Bang Bang Club at the Edinburgh Film Festival, after which there was a short video conference with both Greg and Joao, who is still in hospital recovering from his injuries. The two still keep in contact and Greg has set up a website for Joao, where some of his photos are sold to help him pay his hospital bill. 

One of the photos that is for sale on Joao's website.

To read more about Joao and Greg, and their work and motivation, see this interesting conversation New York Time editor Bill Keller had with the two.