greenfreak
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I subscribe to a newsletter for a website called www.photobetty.com. The website is for women in photography.
The founder of the website, Stephanie Sinclair, is a photo journalist and is currently in Iraq. She sent us a letter today, and it's a long one. But I found it extremely interesting. Take a look:
The founder of the website, Stephanie Sinclair, is a photo journalist and is currently in Iraq. She sent us a letter today, and it's a long one. But I found it extremely interesting. Take a look:
Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2003 12:46 PM
Subject: [photobetty] Fwd: hello from iraq
hey guys, i'm forwarding a long ass email i sent to
family members today detailing my experiences here in
iraq. if you have some time to kill, feel free to take
a look.
take care and i'll write again soon.
love, steph
-------------------------------------------------------
Hello from Iraq once again.
it's sunday, i think, and the war started 11 days ago.
i am currently sitting in our beat up mitsubishi
pajero with a scarf over the windshield so we can type
away on our computers. i am traveling with laurie, a
trib reporter who lives in your, and another getty
photographer named spencer.
where to begin.... well, i'm getting used to
explosions, how about that?
so last friday the three of us ventured off to the
border of kuwait and iraq. our cars we packed to the
hilt and we were ready for our charge up to baghdad.
the first day we tried to get over the border, we were
turned back every time we tried to cross. at one
point, we pulled up to these British soldiers and they
all ran out towards us with their guns pointed at us.
clearly, they were pretty on guard and thought of
anyone approaching them as a threat. a minute after we
asked them for directions, they started yelling "gas,
gas, gas!", jumped into their tanks and sealed them.
laurie and i scrambled for our gas masks and of course
mine was buried in the car somewhere. needless to say
this really upset me, and had this been a real gas
attack i would have been dead cause it took me well
over the 9 seconds alloted to find it.
then we went to the border crossing with iraq at the
port city of umm qasr. we were not allowed to cross
the border so we camped outside it for the night. at
about midnight the sky lit up and the explosions
began. they continued for a couple of hours and we
just stayed in our cars trying to get some rest
despite this.
the next day we searched and searched the border for
ways to get across until we finally came to this break
in the berm where some brits said they couldn't stop
us from crossing. so in between two tanks we flew and
we were in iraq. the place looked completely different
from the last time i saw it a month earlier. there
were tanks everywhere and people on the streets
carrying white flags and waving to us as we drove by.
we ended up at the cloverleaf where the roads to basra
and baghdad intersected. there we met up with some
British military police and decided to stay with them
for a while. there were 40 pows sitting at the side
of the road and we watched as another soldier just
came up and turned himself in.
along this road several injured iraqis came by asking
for help. this one family came by with two dead guys
in the back of the truck and a woman wailing at the
top of her lungs. the children we crying as well, but
we weren't really able to make much of a picture of it
because the MPs kept us back a bit as about 10
journalist trucks had parked at this crossing as well.
another woman came by, she was breast feeding and her
feet were all bloodied and burnt from the war. it was
pretty amazing to be seeing this all first hand. in
one sense i felt helpless. in another, i wanted to
make a good picture of it so i could at least share
what i was seeing.
later on that day a journalist from ITN came by and
knocked on our car window. he had blood on his shirt
and face and had a black eye. he said that the marines
had shot his car up and that he had at least two other
crew members that were killed. apparently they got
caught in crossfire between these iraqi soldiers and
the marines while trying to get close enough for a
shot of this interaction between iraqi and american
soldiers. the bodies of other ITN members your with
that guy have yet to be found. we suspect that the
iraqis have them somewhere, but we're not sure if they
are alive or dead. i would suspect the latter.
our second day in iraq was just as dramatic. we went
up to this town called al zubayr and photographed this
iraqi checkpoint that had been taken by the brits. we
found out later that this is where those ITN guys had
been shot. but it made for a couple of good pictures.
i made one of these brits arresting these looters
underneath this saddam painting. it is one of the best
photos i've ever made. your a lot of these are, not
because of my skills, but because this stuff is so
insane, so historical and your so emotional. it's
amazing to be here as a photographer. and easy to see
why so many photojournalists get addicted to covering
this stuff.
after that we went into the town of safwan to talk to
some locals. the sentiment was that they really wanted
some aid and were angry at the americans for killing
people in their town. it was tense as we went to this
mosque were this dead man was being prepared for
burial. i had to take photos of this without looking
thru the lens because they were not so happy we were
there.
this became even more evident later on back at the
cloverleaf. in the meantime, a good friend of mine,
chris hondros, and his your buddies luc delahay and
tim fadek were booking it up to baghdad in this super
volatile country. your they made the bad decision to
drive past the military convoy they were following and
were ambushed by some iraqi soldiers with rocket
propelled grenades. they had a reporter with them as
well named scott johnson, from newsweek, and his car
was hit and rolled over several times. the guys in the
other car had their car sprayed with bullets and had
their tires blown out. but they drove on and
eventually had to ditch their cars and run on foot
bringing only their cameras and a hand held sat phone.
they thought their friend scott was dead and called to
let their desks know what happened. luckily the
thuraya has a gps on it and they were able to give
them their coordinates. so the marines, reluctantly
went out to search for them. but they ended up walking
thru most of the night until they ran into another
convoy and were able to get back to kuwait. i spoke to
chris today and he is pretty much over the event, was
out shooting today, and wants to get back out here to
continue covering the war.
scott ended up okay as well. the military convoy they
passed caught up with him and took him in while the
iraqi soldiers went after chris and his buddies.
later that night, we had our own scare. the locals
from safwan were hungry and witnessing all of our
trucks packed with food, water, etc. and decided to
attack our camps. the brits that were watching out for
us ended up calling out to us at the top of his lungs
that we had to get in our cars and leave your to drive
down this highway with out lights off in the dark.
apparently they had intelligence that there were about
15- 20 iraqi soldiers with machine guns and rpgs
preparing to attack us and get our goods. down the
road aways we met up with these other brits who made
us sit in our cars in silence for about 3 hours or so
in the dark until it was safe to move us to another
location. finally we were taken there and allowed to
sleep for a few hours in our cars sans body armor.
the next day were we ready to head back to kuwait
until things calmed down a bit. it was clear that it
was a bit too dicey to be running around by ourselves
in iraq. so we followed a military convoy back into
kuwait.
we stayed near the border for the next day and a half
at this farm house. there we were able to shower and
wash our clothes and eat somewhat civilized food like
cooked eggs and tuna sandwiches with mayo. i slept for
like 12 hours. since the start of the war i had only
been getting about 2 or 3 hours a night.
after a day of recuperating, we headed back into
safwan, iraq following in a red crescent aid truck.
this was one of the most intense things i have seen as
it was the first aid delivery into iraq since the
beginning of the war. people were chanting saddam
slogans as the trucks pulled in then mobbed the
trucks, climbing all over them, pushing and shoving
each other. it was like a feeding frenzy, literally.
this one guy grabbed my but twice and i had to belt
him in the chest and yell at him. it was particularly
insulting because muslim men aren't even supposed to
touch a woman's hand, much less their butt. since
then, i have gotten several lewd remarks and gestures.
it's pretty disappointing actually because i am a fan
of the iraqi people and this behavior is so
unacceptable.
later we stayed outside this air base controlled by
the brits. the next day we were escorted by these two
british tanks to this other aid distribution center.
this was a bit more organized, but only because barbed
wire was used.
the most moving part of the day was when this 6 month
old girl was brought in with burns all over her face,
head and arms. it was horrible to look at. apparently,
she was burned when a lantern fell over in her house.
but her family was unable to get her help because most
of the hospitals are closed or are too dangerous to
get to, like in basra. fortunately, it turns out that
the brits took pity on her and had her flown to
england to get real medical help. she will never look
too pretty, but she'll probably live.
later on in the evening, our camp was attacked by some
locals with RPGs and we had to take cover inside this
armored personnel carrier. it was a bit stressful as a
decent sized firefight ensued and it was hard to tell
where the bullets and explosions were coming from.
about 20 minutes later it was over and we were allowed
to file. but we had to do it under out blankets and
scarves because otherwise the light from our computers
would attract sniper fire.... great.
we stayed another day for more aid distribution, but
decided to stay a little farther out of the city. it
was quieter, until about 2 am when some morters
started dropping as the fight for basra and al zubayr
(where we stayed the night before) heated up.
sometime during these exciting evening events, i lost
the power cord to my computer and dropped a camera. so
technically, i was screwed. luckily, john lee, one of
our other photogs in southern iraq, was not far away.
but it did take me a few days to catch up with him.
spencer had to put up with me borrowing his sat phone
in the meantime to file. more stress i didn't need
while covering this crazy shit.
finally, we got the cord and camera and headed to umm
qasr, which had now been secured by the brits. people
were still begging for food and water there and still
are actually, even though the coalition forces say
that this place is taken care of on those fronts. we
disagree and are printing that in the papers. but now
the british public affairs folks are super pissed at
the unilaterals and are trying to escort us out of the
country. it's always chaotic, i swear, but i guess
this is a war.
the past few nights we have stayed at this family's
house behind a gas station, sleeping on the ground
next to our cars in this fenced in area. it's been a
bit better because we could kind of bathe with a
bucket and smelly water in a small outdoor room with
bugs on the ground and a nasty hole in the ground for
a toilet. but believe me, this is a luxury ...to have
somewhat clean hair and a shady spot to sit, is quite
nice. they even gave us some oranges and apples from
the market. paradise, i tell you.
oh, and the other place we have frequented is the
southern bridge to basra. each day there are hordes of
people lined up there being searched as they go in and
out of the city as smoke billows from the fighting in
the city. but morters fall quite a bit at this spot,
so i tend to not go there too often. yesterday we were
there and 10 morters fell an hour earlier. i was in
favor of leaving because shooting the same thing every
day is not worth getting bombed. there was also some
small exchange of gunfire when we were there the time
before that. i don't mean to be a chicken, but i'm
thinking big picture here and i want to be around for
the long haul, although i know i have lost more than a
few good photos because i err on the side of caution.
we also went to the border of nassiriyah the other
day, a place they call "ambush alley," cause all the
convoys get fired on when they go thru. we didn't go
inside the city because of the danger. the reason why
this place is so volatile is because most of the
forces have pushed north to baghdad leaving a
stronghold of baath party members in these towns and
not securing them. this is also why we are stuck here
in southern iraq, it's just a bit too unsafe to travel
up there with out a military convoy and things are not
settled or liberated on the way.
the weirdest thing we witnessed there was these
bedouin women and even young children getting frisked
by the national guard at check points outside th city.
we also saw this group of tribal guys come up in this
truck with american flags on it. turns out they had a
rifle and lots of amo in the car so the soldiers
freaked when they searched the car and found this.
they said they were hired by a local iraqi to work for
the coalition. i'm not sure if this checked out or not
because we had to leave to get back to our camping
area in umm qasr before dark.
so that's where we are now. i am exhausted to tell you
the truth, but we hear that basra may fall in the next
day or two, so we will hopefully be heading over there
soon. we've considered moving northward toward
baghdad, but there is no fuel outside the city and who
knows how long it will be before baghdad falls. so
until we figure out how to proceed we are just trying
to stay safe and with ample supplies so we can work.
sorry for the marathon email (by the way, it's now
thursday- it took me four days to finish this), just
thought it would be interesting reading for those of
you who are interested in another perspective than
cnn. take care, guys. i love you. s
