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When
you started taking photographs, was this for humanitarian reasons?
Yes, at the time I was working independently, for example; I travelled on
my own to Ethiopia. Later I was able to get guarantees from various publications
who promised to buy the photographs later.
You were working on commission?
Yes, this was the late sixties, early seventies when you go out and do these
things and publications would buy it and do a big spread, and they found
it quite exotic to do these stories. In 1978 I started working for GEO,
I worked for them for 15 years, I was one of their top photographers and
at that time I did lot of photography in Africa.
Also in black and white?
No, in 1978 GEO only did colour. OK, I was doing some things in black and
white for myself up till about 1990 when I stopped and gave up the lab.
Over the years I am sure you have had some real adventures but what would
you say was your most difficult assignment?
The most dangerous trip wasn’t in Africa but if we only talk about
Africa then probably the most dangerous thing that ever happened to me was
when I got caught up in Ethiopia during the coup of ’74. The people
were on the streets, it was very dangerous and when I was trying to get
out to the airport on one of the last planes leaving for Europe with Air
Italia I had a cab driver who started to drive me to the airport but the
people started to stone the cab because they saw a white man in there. The
driver wanted to put me out onto the street and I had to “force”
him to drive to the airport otherwise I would have been killed. I’d
rather not say how I forced him.
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Ethiopia - a country and its people crippled by severe droughts and famine |
