Untold Stories 1:
I'm not a Photographer
Old City of Damascus, March 2005
I am a journalist. Not a professional photographer. On the other hand, when I photograph I do so with the passion of a dedicated amateur. In addition, my job as a Middle East Correspondent for TV2/Denmark for many years has given me a ringside ticket to countless dramatic events in one of the most interesting and tumultuous regions in the world.
While the drama is unfolding, I usually have to concentrate on filming and editing my television reports for the evening news, so my photos are usually not taken until we have finished reporting. But the events are almost never over. We stop filming only because we have to begin editing the material for broadcast. So my photos almost always show events that occur after our TV camera has stopped rolling. As a result, they often capture a slightly different angle or another view of what is going on than my television news stories. I now have a huge archive of photos that reminds me of emotions, atmospheres, opinions, impressions, states of mind, sadness, fear or something else from that particular moment which does not belong in a news report. They also remind me of stories I never got to tell, because the pictures show moments, people and events just before or after the footage that was selected for that particular evening’s news programme.
An item for the main evening news on TV2/Denmark is usually not much longer than two minutes. 12 typed lines on a standard A4 sheet is one minute of broadcast time. So you do not get to tell very much on TV in the end. Of course, there is also the additional information conveyed by the moving images of the accompanying video footage. But still I feel that when you cover a story day after day, sometimes for months on end, you experience so much that is never shown on television and you accumulate so many tales that are never told, it can be very frustrating. So this book gives me an opportunity to relate some of that mass of stories that have remained untold.
While the drama is unfolding, I usually have to concentrate on filming and editing my television reports for the evening news, so my photos are usually not taken until we have finished reporting.
Many of the events described here are still unfolding. Some of the conflicts and situations that I cover as a journalist are decades-old disputes that remain unsolved. Other developments, such as the struggles and upheavals we now call The Arab Spring, are still unfolding while this is being written. Right now, I am sitting on my hotel balcony in Cairo while the protest demonstrations are going on in Tahrir Square less than a kilometer away.
Because of this, the production, editing and layout of the pages in this book have been carried out on the run. All the practical work took place in Denmark while I was writing and selecting photos in the breaks between covering these events for TV2.
Such a whirlwind production has only been possible because of the commitment to this project of two other people. First and foremost, Teddy Petersen, publisher of Ajour – the publishing company of The Danish School of Journalism in Aarhus – who critically, competently and lovingly edited the texts; and Flemming Sørensen, who took care of the design and layout with great tenacity and enthusiasm.
All the material was beamed back and forth from various places in the Middle East to Aarhus and Viborg in Denmark for several months while I was following the events I was reporting for television in the evening and writing a page for the book about those same events at night. Once in a while, we succeeded in actually meeting while I was passing through Denmark. But without the inspiring cooperation with Teddy and Flemming and their enormous effort, it would never have been possible to produce a book such as this in such a short time.
I am pleased to be able to pass onto others many of these untold stories, impressions and experiences on the pages that follow. The book is based on my notebooks, dairy entries, articles I wrote at the time for my website, television manuscripts and the different memories and emotions that always come flooding back when I browse through my photos from the often tumultuous days while these events were unfolding.
* * *
Next part of the English version >
< Back to the Danish version.
Translation by Matthew Kalman
The staircase leading up to our LIVE-position on Tahrir Square in Cairo during the revolution, 2011. Photo: Søren Kjeldgaard
While the drama is unfolding, I usually have to concentrate on filming and editing my television reports for the evening news, so my photos are usually not taken until we have finished reporting. But the events are almost never over. We stop filming only because we have to begin editing the material for broadcast. So my photos almost always show events that occur after our TV camera has stopped rolling. As a result, they often capture a slightly different angle or another view of what is going on than my television news stories. I now have a huge archive of photos that reminds me of emotions, atmospheres, opinions, impressions, states of mind, sadness, fear or something else from that particular moment which does not belong in a news report. They also remind me of stories I never got to tell, because the pictures show moments, people and events just before or after the footage that was selected for that particular evening’s news programme.
An item for the main evening news on TV2/Denmark is usually not much longer than two minutes. 12 typed lines on a standard A4 sheet is one minute of broadcast time. So you do not get to tell very much on TV in the end. Of course, there is also the additional information conveyed by the moving images of the accompanying video footage. But still I feel that when you cover a story day after day, sometimes for months on end, you experience so much that is never shown on television and you accumulate so many tales that are never told, it can be very frustrating. So this book gives me an opportunity to relate some of that mass of stories that have remained untold.
While the drama is unfolding, I usually have to concentrate on filming and editing my television reports for the evening news, so my photos are usually not taken until we have finished reporting.
Many of the events described here are still unfolding. Some of the conflicts and situations that I cover as a journalist are decades-old disputes that remain unsolved. Other developments, such as the struggles and upheavals we now call The Arab Spring, are still unfolding while this is being written. Right now, I am sitting on my hotel balcony in Cairo while the protest demonstrations are going on in Tahrir Square less than a kilometer away.
Because of this, the production, editing and layout of the pages in this book have been carried out on the run. All the practical work took place in Denmark while I was writing and selecting photos in the breaks between covering these events for TV2.
Such a whirlwind production has only been possible because of the commitment to this project of two other people. First and foremost, Teddy Petersen, publisher of Ajour – the publishing company of The Danish School of Journalism in Aarhus – who critically, competently and lovingly edited the texts; and Flemming Sørensen, who took care of the design and layout with great tenacity and enthusiasm.
Our balcony overlooking Tahrir Square in Cairo during the revolution, 2011. Photo: Søren Kjeldgaard
All the material was beamed back and forth from various places in the Middle East to Aarhus and Viborg in Denmark for several months while I was following the events I was reporting for television in the evening and writing a page for the book about those same events at night. Once in a while, we succeeded in actually meeting while I was passing through Denmark. But without the inspiring cooperation with Teddy and Flemming and their enormous effort, it would never have been possible to produce a book such as this in such a short time.
I am pleased to be able to pass onto others many of these untold stories, impressions and experiences on the pages that follow. The book is based on my notebooks, dairy entries, articles I wrote at the time for my website, television manuscripts and the different memories and emotions that always come flooding back when I browse through my photos from the often tumultuous days while these events were unfolding.
* * *
Next part of the English version >
< Back to the Danish version.
Translation by Matthew Kalman
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