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Transcript - Page 2 pages- 1 2 3 4
Date: Thursday, Feb.25, 1999
Time: 6:00 - 6:45pm PT
TRegs: Do you ever feel compelled to help the people you photograph?
Susan: Often I feel compelled and often in fact, I do help them. I think one cannot just be a spectator and I hope my photos engage people. Sometimes it moves a viewer to find away they can make a contribution, be it financial; or even a poem. The issue is sharing a concern and trying to find a way to act and for each individual the choice rests with them. There are many pictures I do not take because my subject's safety comes first. I recognize as a photographer I am limited in how I can help someone- I am not a doctor, but I do help as best I can.
purplemoon says: Don't you feel vulnerable, as a woman traveling alone in these war-torn areas, esp. since you're carrying expensive equipment, which must make you a target?
Susan: Sometimes I am vulnerable and I would chose to work with others, be they film crews or writers. Each country I visit is different and sometimes I am alone. I rarely have felt people were interested in my equipment; however, I did have an incident once on the US-Tijuana border. A young man grabbed my camera and I clung desperately to it while many watched and no one came to help. I was the only American and so people had been friendly before. I suddenly realized I was 'completely' alone and perhaps unwelcome.
duhranged says: Do you carry a gun? Have you ever had to kill someone (in self defense?)
Susan: Never on both questions. I have never carried a gun and never felt the need. Also the ethics of my trade are such that I feel myself an observer. If I carry a gun I feel then I am part of the situation. If you recall, once a Pulitzer Prize was rescinded because a
photojournalist was armed. If I were to carry a gun I could be misconceived as part of the military force.
prozacchick says: What is the most dangerous situation you have ever been in?
Susan: Many situations have been dangerous, but the closest call for me was once when my car was blown up by a claymore mine in El Salvador. The driver took shrapnel in his brain and died 24 hrs later. I was unconscious but was incredibly lucky because the fragments from the mine landed above my eye. My friend in the back seat was killed a few weeks later in a crossfire.
terris says: Is it more or less difficult for a women in war zones?
Susan: There are advantages and disadvantages. The greatest disadvantage is the physical stress. The greatest advantage is a physiological calmness that comes with from being a woman. The other advantage in a sense I am a curiosity being a woman among many men in the media and the participants.
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Photography
