Tale of dare devilry

THE BANG-BANG CLUB-SNAPSHOTS FROM A HIDDEN WAR: Greg Marinovich, Joao Silva; William Heinemann, London. Random House Group Ltd., 20, Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW IV 2SA œ. 18.

THE TWO authors and two other associates and fellow photographers comprised the Bang-Bang Club. They covered the bloody civil war in South Africa in the 1980s and early 1990s. The two, now living, record their memories, richly aided by their own pictures.

The violence that attended the clashes between the banned movement, African National Congress, and the splinter group, Inkatha, was unvaryingly gory and gruesome. Inkatha was widely believed to have been trained in warfare by the police and the right-wingers secretly. The authors recall an instance in which policemen, disguised as black rebels, attacked a commuter train, only to return as investigating officers shortly after. The Bang- Bang Club members were not exempt from allegations that they were faking death and injury.

That the authors were Whites and were not subject to the harassments which would have visited a Black colleague does not detract from the dare devilry of the Bang-Bang Club. The Time and Newsweek treated their cameramen differently, especially in the matter of hiring bullet-proof vehicles for negotiating disturbed areas. The Bang-Bang Club did not like being dubbed ``paparazzi'' though they were mostly ``lucky voyeurs'' who often escaped unhurt from scenes of mayhem.

If violence was revolting enough, administration of war medicine - Intelezi - with parts of human body of enemies as ingredients, was quite repulsive. This potion was supposed to make the volunteering warrior invulnerable to harm. The authors were witnesses to mindless violence, especially when human rights were unknown anathema. Kevin Carter won the Pulitzer Prize for feature photography. His entry showed a vulture stalking a starving child in Southern Sudan. Kevin was flooded with enquiries from all over on what he did either to drive away the vulture or to feed the child. He could not help the moral dilemma of a photographer - whether he should be a strictly emotionally neutral professional or whether he should give free play to his humanitarian instincts. Co-author of this book, Greg, also won the Pulitzer for spot news in 1991, thus making the crack combine a prize team.

Unfortunately, Kevin committed suicide and Ken died in harness, hit by a stray bullet, leaving it to the authors to remember them to posterity. Kevin was afraid to perform after his vulture picture won him a Pulitzer as public expectations were high and exacting. Addiction to drugs made matters worse.

The Bang-Bang Club's exploits took them to the war zones in Croatia, Angola and Sudan also. From the account given by the two survivors, it is clear that they were professionals to the core, though one of them was given to frequent emotional instability, especially after winning international recognition. Perhaps the excitement and the compelling uncertainty of conflict situations was their very elixir.

A. S. PADMANABHAN

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