Lenslinger
Feb 19th 2009, 05:00 AM
Much love to Amanda Emily (http://www.amandaemily.com/blog/) for turning me on to the life of this legendary lenslinger.
http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2005/09/11/newsman_narrowweb__200x287.jpgNeil Davis did what every news shooter at one time or another thought about: filmed his own death. But this Australian combat photographer had no deathwish. He did, however, feel most alive when documenting peril. The only cameraman (http://www.lightstalkers.org/friday-sept-9th---neil-davis-memorial-3) to film North Vietnamese tanks as they crashed through the gates of the Presidential palace in Saigon, Davis had a well-earned reputation as a man who would hunker down and roll when others would up and run. This fearless verve kept hin in good standing with his NBC suits. They readily bought his footage as he covered combat on three different continents. But Davis was more than a mere photog; he was a Journalist with a capitol J, a poetic soul (http://dirckhalstead.org/issue0509/steinman_davis.html) who every day wrote the following in his diary:
“One crowded hour of glorious life is worth an age without a name“
In 1985 that glorious life came to a violent end when Davis was killed (http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/a-newsman-in-the-wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time/2005/09/11/1126377206273.html) by tank fire during a Thai coup attempt. He was less than fifty meters from the tank that killed him, and rolling to the end. And we stateside shooters complain when our batteries turn up missing...
More... (http://lenslinger.blogspot.com/2009/02/rolling-to-end.html)
http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2005/09/11/newsman_narrowweb__200x287.jpgNeil Davis did what every news shooter at one time or another thought about: filmed his own death. But this Australian combat photographer had no deathwish. He did, however, feel most alive when documenting peril. The only cameraman (http://www.lightstalkers.org/friday-sept-9th---neil-davis-memorial-3) to film North Vietnamese tanks as they crashed through the gates of the Presidential palace in Saigon, Davis had a well-earned reputation as a man who would hunker down and roll when others would up and run. This fearless verve kept hin in good standing with his NBC suits. They readily bought his footage as he covered combat on three different continents. But Davis was more than a mere photog; he was a Journalist with a capitol J, a poetic soul (http://dirckhalstead.org/issue0509/steinman_davis.html) who every day wrote the following in his diary:
“One crowded hour of glorious life is worth an age without a name“
In 1985 that glorious life came to a violent end when Davis was killed (http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/a-newsman-in-the-wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time/2005/09/11/1126377206273.html) by tank fire during a Thai coup attempt. He was less than fifty meters from the tank that killed him, and rolling to the end. And we stateside shooters complain when our batteries turn up missing...
More... (http://lenslinger.blogspot.com/2009/02/rolling-to-end.html)