I wanted to give this interview a proper place amid my other interviews. As you know we are working with Ron on a project titled “The Lost Rolls” which is getting ready to launch. Book, magazine, website and exhibitions in both New York and Paris. If you are in these cities at these times please feel free to RSVP. This is an atypical project, comprised of recently discovered unprocessed film dating back twenty-five-years. It speaks to history, memory, the analog era, conflict, politics and even family.
Ron Haviv is an Emmy nominated and award-‐winning photojournalist and co-‐ founder of the photo agency VII, dedicated to documenting conflict and raising about human rights issues around the globe. His first photography book, Blood and Honey: A Balkan War Journal, was called “One of the best non-‐fiction books of the year,” by The Los Angeles Times and “A chilling but vastly important record of a people’s suffering,” by Newsweek. His two other monographs are Afghanistan: The Road to Kabul and Haiti: 12 January 2010. Haviv has produced an unflinching record of the injustices of war and his photography has had singular impact. His work in the Balkans, which spanned over a decade of conflict, was used as evidence to indict and convict war criminals at the international tribunal in The Hague. President H.W. George Bush cited Haviv’s chilling photographs documenting paramilitary violence in Panama as one of the reasons for the 1989 American intervention. Haviv is the central character in six documentary films, including National Geographic Explorer’s Freelance in a World of Risk, in which he speaks about the dangers of combat photography, including his numerous detentions and close calls. He has provided expert analysis and commentary on ABC World News, BBC, CNN, NPR, MSNBC, NBC Nightly News, Good Morning America and The Charlie Rose Show.
Comments 8
That was fascinating Dan – thanks for taking the time to put it together and put it up on the web.
Author
Patrick,
Welcome. Thanks for listening.
I’ve been waiting to listen to this until after my copy of The Lost Rolls arrived. It showed a couple of days ago. Listening to this is amazing. The concept of processing color negs, scanning then emailing over sat phone out in the field is completely nuts. It’s also highly intriguing. I’ve always been drawn this type of work and sometimes feel as though I’ve missed my path. Ron and Nachtwey have been, and will continue to be, a constant source of inspiration.
Thank you for this as well as your work on The Lost Rolls.
Author
Sean,
Another friend told me about building a fire in Somalia, heating chemistry, processing in the field, SAT phone, etc. And getting so sick he had to be evac’d out. Imagine getting shot at on your way to the airport to find a stranger to take your film to Paris. Seems entirely unreal. Thanks for reading.
Arriving in Bosnia, I was astonished to find gently undulating meadows interspersed with forests. Prime dairy country. In Slovenia, people live in delightful wooden chalets and everyone seems to drive a Volvo. Pedestrians there are very particular about using authorised crossing points. Croatians boast any number of nudist beaches.
Only someone utterly deranged could set genocide and concentration camps alongside this scheme of things. And yet …
We consistently underestimate how long the echoes of history endure, while swallowing the conceit that ‘We’ are somehow different from ‘Them’. Centuries. And hardly at all.
Author
Lionel,
Communism, Fascism. Idealogical movements. And now this…
It took a while but the hardcover of the Rolls is ordered at Blurb.
Now the thought having this book around in the internetless week of the holidays already make me smile. Thanks Ron and Dan for putting this one on earth. It will be a historical bookmark for me for the 11/13 events.
Author
Thanks Reiner. Good to know it’s heading your way.