Danger Pay

Memoir of a Photojournalist in the Middle East, 1984-1994

Carol Spencer Mitchell (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

216 Seiten

2023
University of Texas Press (Verlag)
978-1-4773-2720-3 (ISBN)

Artikel merken

An engrossing memoir in which a photojournalist records both the precursors to today’s conflicts in the Middle East and her own deeply felt conviction that news coverage of the region actually increases the conflicts there. Although the events that Spencer Mitchell records took place a generation ago, their repercussions reverberate in the conflicts going on in the Middle East today.

An engrossing memoir in which a photojournalist records both the precursors to today’s conflicts in the Middle East and her own deeply felt conviction that news coverage of the region actually increases the conflicts there.

"You're going where?" Carol Spencer Mitchell's father demanded as she set off in 1984 to cover the Middle East as a photojournalist for Newsweek and other publications. In this intensely thoughtful memoir, Spencer Mitchell probes the motivations that impelled her—a single Jewish woman—to document the turmoil roiling the Arab world in the 1980s and 1990s, as well as how her experiences as a photojournalist compelled her to set aside her cameras and reexamine the way images are created, scenes are framed, and "real life" is packaged for specific news stories.

In Danger Pay, Spencer Mitchell takes us on a harrowing journey to PLO military training camps for Palestinian children and to refugee camps in the Gaza Strip before, during, and after the first intifada. Through her eyes, we experience the media frenzy surrounding the 1985 hijackings of TWA Flight #847 and the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro. We meet Middle Eastern leaders, in particular Yasser Arafat and King Hussein of Jordan, with whom Spencer Mitchell developed close working relationships. And we witness Spencer Mitchell's growing conviction that the Western media's portrayal of conflicts in the Middle East actually helps to fuel those conflicts-a conviction that eventually, as she says, "shattered [her] career."

Although the events that Spencer Mitchell records took place decades ago, their repercussions reverberate in the MIddle Eastern conflicts of today. Likewise, her concern about "the triumph of image over reality" takes on greater urgency as our knowledge of the world becomes ever more filtered by virtual media.

Carol Spencer Mitchell (1954-2004) covered the Middle East and North Africa for many leading U.S. and European publications, including Newsweek, Time, U.S. News & World Report, Look, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Newsday, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Ellen Spencer Susman, Carol's sister, served as Director of the US Department of State's Art in Embassies program during the Obama administration. She serves on the boards of various art museums, including the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Ellen resides in Houston, Texas.

Foreword
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Part I: There's a New Kid in Town

1. The Burning Bush
2. Reorienting
3. Crossing the Bridge
4. Ode to Abu Ammar
5. Gaza Slick
6. Photo Op
7. A Room with a View

Part II: The Moment and the Mask

8. His Majesty
9. Let's Get Some Color
10. House of Hashem
11. Up, Up, and Away
12. Private Conversations (I)

Part III: Passing Through

13. TWA Flight #847
14. Exile
15. Cruising
16. Caviar, Khat, and Cover Pix

Part IV: Inside Terror, Inc.

17. Dance into Darkness
18. Journalists Are Used to Danger
19. He Who Builds
20. Private Conversations (II)
21. Promise Me I Won't Be Touched
22. Lebanon

Part V: Travels in Sudan

23. Sorry, All Lines Are Jammed
24. Wau (Wow!)
25. I Don't Know What I'm Feeling
26. You Need Something to Peg the Story On

Part VI: The Striptease

27. Everybody Must Get Stoned
28. Photo-Realism, the "Real" Picture, and the Ingathering
29. The Striptease

Part VII: The Mother of All Battles

30. What the Hell Am I Doing?
31. The Sealed Room
32. The Striptease, Take 2

Epilogue
33. The Old Man
34. War on Another Front

Erscheinungsdatum	24.08.2023
Reihe/Serie	Focus on American History Series
Verlagsort	Austin, TX
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	454 g
Themenwelt	Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
	Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Fotokunst
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
ISBN-10	1-4773-2720-7 / 1477327207
ISBN-13	978-1-4773-2720-3 / 9781477327203
Zustand	Neuware