138 - Tim Page
© Tim Page
British photojournalist Tim Page was born in 1944 and left England at 17 to travel across Europe and the Middle East en route to India and Nepal. He found himself in Laos at the time of the civil war and ended up working as a stringer for wire service United Press International. From there he moved on to Saigon where he covered the Vietnam War for the next five years working largely on assignment for Time-Life, Upi, Paris Match and Associated Press. He also found time to cover the Six Day War in the Middle East in 1967. The role of war-photographer suited Tim’s craving for danger and excitement. He became an iconic photographer of the Vietnam War and his pictures were the visual inspiration for many films of the period. The photojournalist played by Dennis Hopper in Francis Ford Coppola’s seminal 1979 movie Apocalypse Now was based on Tim.
The Vietnam War was the first and last war where there was no censorship, the military actively encouraged press involvement and Tim went everywhere, covering everything. He was wounded four times, once by friendly fire and on the last ocassion when he jumped out of a helicopter to help wounded personnel and the person in front of him stepped on a landmine, sending a large piece of shrapnel into Tim’s brain. He was pronounced DOA at the hospital. He required extensive neuro-surgery and spent most of the seventies in recovery.
It was while he was recovering in hospital in spring 1970 that he learnt that his best friend and fellow photographer Sean Flynn, son of Hollywood actor Errol, had gone missing in Cambodia. Throughout the 70’s and 80’s Tim’s abiding obsession was to discover the fate and final resting place of his friend and to erect a memorial to all those in the media that were either killed or went missing in the war. This led him to found the IndoChina Media Memorial Foundation and was the genesis for the book Requiem. With his friend Horst Faas, photo editor for Associated Press and double Pulitzer Prize winner, Tim co-edited the book and commemorated the work of all the dead and the missing, from all nations, who were lost in the thirty-year struggle for liberation. Requiem the exhibition is now on permanent display at the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City.
Tim spent 5 months in 2009 as the Photographic Peace Ambassador for the UN in Afghanistan and is the recipient of many awards. He has been the subject of many documentaries, two films and is the author of ten books, including a yet to be released hand-made publication entitled Nam Contact, produced by recent Small Voice guest Stephen Dupont, and available soon in a limited edititon of nine copies. In 2010 Tim was named one of the '100 Most Influential Photographers Of All Time' by Professional Photographer magazine. Tim now lives in Brisbane, Australia.
On episode 138, Tim discusses, among other things:
How he fell into photography
Strengths and weaknesses
The importance of the darkroom
The lack of outlets for photojournalism today
Having a ‘palette of film’
Being part of a golden age of photojournalism
Why he kept going back to Vietnam after numerous injuries
Being mentored Larry Burrows
Spending the 70’s taking a lot of LSD
Going back as catharsis in the 80’s
His obsession with trying to find out what happened to his friend Sean Flynn
Referenced:
THIS EPISODE OF THE PODCAST IS SPONSORED BY THE CHARCOAL BOOK CLUB - THE LATEST AND GREATEST PHOTOBOOKS, EXPERTLY CURATED AND DELIVERED TO YOU DOOR WITH FREE SHIPPING AND NO HASSLES.
INFORM THE MIND, INSPIRE THE SOUL
Tier 1 membership: access to complete archive of past episodes, plus exclusive member-only content including a second fortnightly episode.
Tier 2 membership: access to complete archive of past episodes.