The New York Times Lens blog interviews nine photojournalists about the difficulty of getting images from Egypt’s protests.
Photographers of the increasingly violent upheaval in Egypt are being forced — in the interest of personal safety — to adopt practices that limit their range of coverage at exactly the moment the world is hungriest for as many images from as many perspectives as possible.
According to interviews on Thursday with nine photojournalists in Cairo, it is often hard to photograph demonstrators for President Hosni Mubarak, because they are so openly hostile to journalists. On the defensive, photojournalists also find themselves traveling in packs (which they do not typically like to do), staying away from whole sections of Cairo (which is anathema) and donning helmets (which raises the likelihood they will be mistaken for government spies).
Try also Andrew Burton’s account on his personal blog.
… At this point, I was pinned. People continued to kick, punch and grab at cameras. Soldiers standing on top of the tank were waving pistols and screaming. I was fucking terrified. My shirt was ripped from my back, hands went into my pockets (the most they got was my CF cards), the men protecting me were looking at me screaming me, ‘you are safe, we are here for you, we will get you out of this.”
Our thanks go to all working on getting information out to the rest of us.
(Source: futurejournalismproject)
