Stephen Sidlo Photography Blog

James Nachtwey and The Other

SpecialKRB - CC -Flickr

James Nachtwey is an American photojournalist and war photographer. He has been awarded the Overseas Press Club’s Robert Capa Gold Medal five times. In 2003, he was injured by a grenade in an attack on his convoy while serving as a Time contributing correspondent in Baghdad, from which he has made a full recovery. He is by all accounts one of the greatest war photojournalists of our time, a member of The Bang Bang Club and Magnum, he has bodies of work ranging from Sudan, Kosovo and Northern Ireland to the Middle East and 9/11.

His words are always haunting, he has seen and photographed horror in its deepest and darkest form. It is miraculous he has survived both physically and mentally so far. He remembers;

“The most incomprehensible situation I’ve ever witnessed was Rwanda where we don’t really know how many people died; the estimate of half a million to a million. They were killed with very primitive weapons; clubs and rocks and machetes, face to face. And I saw some massacre sites and I just do not understand how people can do that to each other. What can inspire such fear and such hatred? This is beyond my understanding really. It’s very difficult to get over that.

…And I realised that many of the people I was photographing might have been the very ones who had committed the massacres that I had witnessed just a few weeks before. And it was like taking the express elevator to hell.”

A lot of photojournalism is knowledge, absorbing information and coming to an innate understanding of the events. This should never be achieved on the road to the event. You must think first as a journalist and second as a photographer. Journalism will always provide you with the context in what to shoot, rather than choosing the most attractive position. James is a connoisseur in this field, but was thrown when the attacks of 9/11 happened, almost dying while shooting under the WTC 2, when it fell.

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: 9/11, afghanistan, america, camera, conflict photojournalist, documentary, George Bush, horror, humanitarian photojournalist, Iraq, journalism, ngo humanitarian photographer, offices, photojornalism, photojournalism, Photojournalist, politics, religion, War, warrior ethos

Dating Jesus….One Foot Midgets……Naked Showgirls

Now if you were to make love to Jesus…say you were a woman. Hypothetically. You may well be. But more so, like Judy Dench or Edith Piaf. A woman that would date a four foot hairy Jesus. As it was 2000 years ago people were a lot smaller, especially men. Scary, isn’t it? It would make you wonder if they had midgets back then though? Two feet tall? Maybe a foot? Running around, going to work in the market with suits on. As you go shopping, a mobile phone sized man falls off a bric-a-brac table and lands in your woven basket. Lying there helpless, all he can see is giant oranges and bananas around him in the bag. Fucking scary man.


I only bring up Jesus as there is a new gameshow out, this one though looks interesting. Unfortunately it isn’t another Japanese/Squid/Toenail gameshow you see late night on Dave. It’s much worse, because they bring GOD into the house. Not just THE God but all the God’s. It’s a Turkish TV gameshow called ‘Penitents Complete’ where they have Rabbis, Bishops, Buddhist Monks etc. to come along and fucking CONVERT Atheists. Now…..I know what your thinking. I would love to go on as well but digging deeper I found that Penitents comes from the Christian movement Order of Penitents which is;

Those who had committed serious sins confessed their sins to the bishop or his representative and were assigned a penance that was to be carried out over a period of time. After completing their penance, they were reconciled by the bishop with a prayer of absolution offered in the midst of the community. Penance assumed many forms, such as pilgrimages to holy sites; constructing, repairing and rebuilding churches; and caring for the poor and sick.’

So yes that’s your prize if you get converted. A one way ticket to a wall, in a country you picked once you were systematically brainfucked. According to another Journalist at Reuters;


A team of theologians will ensure that the atheists are truly non-believers and are not just seeking fame or a free holiday’.


A free holiday they say..but more importantly fame. Those zealot high priests, mumbling behind cloth as the winner arrives at the Vatican in his Chuck Taylor trainers and wide brimmed hat, chewing gum, the walk of a man so drug-crazed on fame he walks like the Trebor Mr Soft man. Horrible sight.

And the fact that this gameshow name resembles a gladiatorial combat name. Do we really expect Priests on horseback, naked maybe, togas at least, charging headlong at the contestant with a Gideons Bible spiked on the end of his Javelin. Crowd baying for the Atheist to be struck through the heart with full force, the champion Reverend celebrating in a blood soaked rage, warcrying to the Gods.

Why convert these people anyway? They are fine, do you want to prove that Atheists are not immune to God? You can brainwash anyone. Why is it you are told you are Catholic from birth before you have a say in the matter? People do go crazy if they abstain from sex and only read one book…just look at the Manson Family..or the Bush administration.

Someone or other who designed it said that the biggest prize you can possibly win is the belief in a God. Somehow that belief in God, Santa or the guy in my bar who thinks he might possibly be an ‘advanced turtle’ doesn’t cut it for me. My prize would be a Vincent Black Shadow, My own ski resort or a fighter jet, maybe a herd of racing camels or a state of the art George Forman Grill. If Davina McCall came to me as I left the show and said push the red button and see how much you have won…I would pause.

Like I did the time my friend was on a drug frenzy on a Welsh beach convincing us that he would personally go to the waters edge and ‘fight the ocean‘, which he did..but all you can do is pause and try and evaluate the situation and realise where you fucking are.

Thus facing pregnant Davina as I collapse on the red button, expecting fireworks, Oceans 11 style fountains and harps. Showgirls running amok, giraffes serving me cocktails, Stevie Wonder pausing during a set as everyone looks at the screen which reads…STEPHEN SIDLO – YOU HAVE WON BELIEF 2009.

Id break down in disappointment, id probably age a thousand years. The naked showgirls who are now helping Stevie play ‘God is my Saviour‘ on the piano while the giraffe talks eloquently to Davina about creationism. It doesn’t bare thinking about.

Back to reality and a sharp run away from objectifying this TV nightmare, I cannot imagine the implications it could have if each contestant (if successfully brainwashed) chose the same Religion. If all chose Buddhism. How would that sit on the Iraq border, as they all tune in and they themselves become further confused at world affairs. These whorebeasts at the TV station understand the power of subjecting innocent law abiding citizens of the free world to the war-ravaged brainfucked economy of Religion.

With my project on the homeless I may pose questions to them on religion in their lives…ask them straight, man to man if Belief in God is the only reason they wake up each day. Maybe I’m just objectifying. Maybe I should go on that show.


Filed under: belief. catholic, buddhist, davina, gameshow, jesus, jewish, judy dench, manson, midgets, mr soft, penance, Penitents Complete, religion, trebor

Safe Havens?

Stephen Sidlo Copyright 2008

I took this image about 4 years ago and when looking through my neg files I came across it, scanned it in. Its a transparency image of a church and tombstone, but it’s not actually a church its a million pound inner city complex for yuppies and whatnot. Mercedes Benz line the car parks and a guard slowly trundles around the graveyard that surrounds the church. On the door there is a sign saying ‘This is an Automatic Door, Please Do Not Push or Pull.’ Trespassers will be Prosecuted.

Now I’m not religious, but I understand religion. I also understand the safe haven that comes within a church, the hopeful protection of god within its walls from whatever. To see a monument to god in a major cosmopolitan city, that is inaccessible to everyone. With also a nice young girl with phones and buttons behind the glass panelled door upon entrance just makes it all the more surreal.

But what about the tombstone? It has this strange number on the back, it cant be a tag…more like a phone number or removal number. God doesn’t even know this one because he has been bought out by large sums of cash. The tombstones have been there since it was converted and people had been living there for 9 months. So why do they remain?

Filed under: church, churches, inner-city, manchester, mercedes, religion

The Pursuit of Happiness

Well just finished work behind the bar, it makes you wonder about life alot. Many men and women that have nailed down jobs doing construction and office work, is that life? I look at myself and think – for fuck sake do something with it, rather than piss it away or do a 9-5 filing system getting told off by a boss who would rather be playing golf than telling you off! It’s like life goes round in circles when it shouldn’t.

Getting a few ideas down and researching, yes researching – taking the time to look at all the pitfalls and potential slip-ups of your life to get what you want.
If you look at the film ‘Pursuit of Happyness’ it talks about how in the declaration of independence (notice how I don’t use capital letters because America has no freedom and independence) it states that it stands by people to ‘The Pursuit of Happiness” and that you can never be happy just persue it. So what the fuck are we hear for…there must be a reason? Is that reason to earn a comfortable living like millions of others in centuries past in 9-5 jobs…or to grasp what you have in search of happiness knowing you may never have it.

I don’t know. But will what I do on earth have any change on it? Fuck religion and fuck government…I’m staring to feel and act like Tyler Durden.Will it make any difference if i make images that will chance something…i will be happy if i change a certain part of it. I don’t think you can change the world, theres too much going on…I still don’t think there will be happiness for anyone, not when people always want more.
So whats the meaning of life??

Filed under: america, construction, fight club, Freedom, government, Happyness, independence, photography, photojournalism, podcast, propaganda, Pursuit of Happiness, religion, tyler durden, world

Who writes all this?

Stephen Sidlo Photojournalist

Head Publisher for Demotix. Photojournalist, Conflict & NGO documentarian. Gonzo participator in journalism. Humanitarian. Occasional Skydiver. Black coffee, two sugars. Views my own.

Twitter Updates

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 960 other followers