Home >iphone >“A photograph can save a life”

iphone

Time: globisoftware

On: Mar/14/2023

Category: Huawei iphone samsung Digital life

Tags: How can I find out what iPhone I have?

Portraying the light from the darkness

A journalist by vocation, one of those who devoured the news as a child, Juan Carlos Tomasi -here photographed by Xavier Cervera- has followed in the footsteps of those intrepid correspondents who brought us news in black and white from remote Vietnam or Angola. Since he landed in Rwanda in 1996, he has lost count of the armed conflicts he has covered to date. But the experience has not made him callous: during the interview he cannot suppress crying when he recalls women captured with his camera, whose lives have been cut short, sometimes without remedy, as he recounts in the book that includes his career with Doctors Without Borders . Some images are overwhelming, testimony to dark moments in contemporary history, but necessary. Despite the suffering, he confesses that he would repeat the experience. Without hesitation.

How does a sports photojournalist decide to go and cover conflicts around the world?

One day 26 years ago, a friend, Rafael Vila-Sanjuán, told me: “Do you have a valid passport? Can you go to Rwanda this afternoon?

And what did you say?

"Well, let's go." I did not hesitate for a moment.

Without fear?

When I was ten years old, I watched the news: Vietnam, Angola... I had always dreamed of being there.

Why did you become a photojournalist?

Because I stutter. What I liked was the radio and TV, but since I couldn't reach them I opted for the image.

Who would you choose among the writers who have put words to their images?

“A photograph can save a life”

With Mario Vargas Llosa in the Congo. We were together for a month. He is a brilliant, capable, funny man, you can laugh and share a bottle of wine with him every day.

What do you think of the mythical photo of the fallen militiaman from Capa?

When you're at the front, in the trenches, it's very difficult to take a photo from behind, almost impossible to turn around and, in an instant, frame, shoot and have the militiaman drop in time.

So can we believe their photos?

Journalists have to be honest, it is honesty that earns us the trust of the reader. There is no point in retouching an image if what I intend is to narrate an emotion. It is the first thing my father, Tomás, who was a goalkeeper, taught me: to be honest.

What's in your backpack?

Some headphones, an iPad, an iPhone and a book, usually crime novels; Right now one about the Algerian war. Reading allows me to escape. And a Tintin.

Of course!

Yes, but it's a myth. Tintin is pure adventure, which you don't find when you exercise. The profession of reporter is actually closer to the psychologist because it is about understanding why: why do we have to kill ourselves?

Hard to explain the horror.

You know that when you turn around and you're gone, they're going to start killing each other.

Have you become a skeptic?

You must be able to reinvent hope.

Have you come face to face with the face of evil?

I try to show evil without showing it. I only photograph dead people when I have to report something. When I have seen brutality.

Do you often get morbid?

First of all we must be dignified and respectful. The people we photograph give us their story, their life. To interfere in someone's life you have to have something very important to say.

And does that someone know who is your protagonist?

Yes, MSF's code of ethics obliges us to have the authorization of each person whose story we tell.

Has anyone objected to your camera?

In 26 years I can count them on the fingers of one hand, because they are forgotten and our work makes them important.

Of all your photographs, which one has moved you the most?

I've seen too many things. But love never fails to impress me. I remember an old woman in Bogotá, she had lost everything, she lived in a neighborhood with half a million people displaced by the war. But she only missed one thing: her children taking her out for ice cream.

And those moments are rewarding?

Always, but in general, this profession has a cumulative negative charge.

Does it take a toll?

Yes, on a mental level. You suffer anxiety and a lot of stress, but it compensates.

He also has a mission.

My job is to be there, to see, listen, and bear witness. Doctors Without Borders was founded by health workers, but also by journalists, and something that is essential in their actions is the awareness that a word or a photo can save a life. And a silence can kill many.

Informant or artist?

I have a passion for the reflection of life. Portray light from darkness. I can risk my life but it regenerates me. My work at MSF is testimony and denunciation.

His future?

I feel satisfied, I have seen my son grow but I have a report pending: to portray climate change. It is our sword of Damocles, I am afraid that Leo will see El Prat converted into an airport only for seaplanes.

Is this the next battlefront?

Our whole world can explode. There will come a time when a north-south war will break out.

Why?

By the water. Many will suffer its consequences and will run the risk of being forgotten. I will be there to photograph them.