EXPOSURE TO LIGHT
War Photographers and Stress
In May 2000, we embarked on a series of studies addressing the question of how war journalists deal emotionally with the pressures and stresses of working in zones of conflict. The hazards inherent in this occupation were immediately brought home to us. A package of questionnaires en route to Miguel Gil Moreno in Sierra Leone would never be answered. Days after they were sent, forwarded by the AP television news (APTN) office in London, Moreno and his Reuters colleague Kurt Schork were murdered not far from the capital, Freetown. Their violent deaths would not be the last before the first phase of our study was completed. They did, however, reinforce the need for a study examining the psychological well-being of war journalists. Until we began collecting data, nothing empirical had been published on the subject. Readers wanting a better understanding of the lives of this intrepid group of men and women could read personal memoirs, where catchy titles like Live from the Battlefield and The Bang-Bang Club provided informative, at times shocking, insights. Useful as the memoirs were, their intensely subjective content did not necessarily apply to the entire profession. Extrapolating from individual experience is not a substitute for detailed, rigorous group observations.
What befell two experienced journalists like Schork and Moreno galvanized several news organizations into supporting our investigation. With the help of the BBC, CNN, Reuters, APTN, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the names of 170 journalists were forwarded to us. Of these, 140 (83 percent) agreed to participate, which involved completing a series of detailed questionnaires and, for one in five of the journalists, undergoing a structured interview. To provide a framework for comparison, a control group of 107 domestic journalists, never exposed to war, was also enrolled.
The results indicated that war journalists had significantly more post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and psychological distress. Moreover, the rate of PTSD in the war group over the course of their working lives far exceeded that in traumatized firefighters and police officers, and approximated that recorded in combat veterans.
Particularly vulnerable are photographers. “If your pictures are not good enough, you are not close enough,” observed Robert Capa. Given that exposure to grave personal danger is closely allied to the development of PTSD, we returned to our original data set and examined the profiles of still photographers.
War photographers are, in fact, few in number. Our sample consisted of seventeen, only two of whom were female. Twelve were either single or divorced, a high number given their average age of thirty-seven. To help interpret the psychological data, we selected a control group of twenty-four print reporters, whose demographics matched the photographers closely (except in the area of education). The most striking behavioral observation was the high frequency of PTSD symptoms described by the photographers.
The disorder encompasses three distinct sets of symptoms: (1) re-experiencing phenomena, e.g., flashbacks, dreams, involuntary intrusive images; (2) avoidant symptoms, e.g., an avoidance of feelings, activities, places associated with the trauma and an emotional distancing from friends and family; (3) hyperarousal features, e.g., exaggerated startle response, hypervigilance, irritability.
Heightened risk may be one reason for these elevated scores in photographers. Another reason may relate to the nature of the image captured. All the photographers spoke of periodically filming scenes of such grotesqueness that they knew the photos would never be published. Notwithstanding editorial sensitivities and public squeamishness, they felt compelled to record a visual testament. Those images never went anywhere other than to the repository of their memories, where over time, their collective weight ensured intrusion into dreams and unwanted recollections. A memorable interview with Don McCullin aired on CNN in 1998 attests to this. Looking back over a stellar career, a somber McCullin appears haunted by the many images of death and bereavement that have passed in front of his lens. Sleeping with Ghosts is the apt title for a collection of his photographs.
War photography, by its nature, may attract individuals who seek out risk, danger, and the adrenaline rush, thereby predisposing them to PTSD. Such a reductionist explanation does not, however, do justice to the complexity of issues motivating war photographers. In face to face interviews, they enumerated: a commitment to a story; wanderlust combined with particular discovery of talent as a photographer under hazardous conditions; a feeling of comfort in zones of conflict because of an upbringing in a dysfunctional family. Furthermore, what motivated an individual at the beginning of his or her career often differed from what spurred that person on a decade later. An early motivation may have been the lure of adventure, but in time this lessened, to be replaced by a strong desire to bear witness.
Two final observations: First, photographers reported significantly more physical illnesses than print reporters — perhaps a consequence of high levels of stress. Second, emotional difficulties in photographers were often unrecognized and untreated. This troubling fact, applicable to war journalists in general, should come as a wake-up call to photographers and news bosses alike.
This study was funded, in part, by the Freedom
Forum.
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