Bang-bang Club: The Making of the New South Africa: Amazon.de: Greg Marinovich: Englische Bücher

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Ask any foreign editor on a national paper what part of the job gives them the most grief, and you'll almost certainly be told, "the foreign correspondents". Almost without exception, the reporters who bring back the best stories from war zones are neurotic, dysfunctional, paranoid and almost impossible to deal with. And if The Bang-Bang Club is anything to go by, you can include war photographers in the same category. The Bang-Bang Club was the name given to four South African photo-journalists, Greg Marinovich, Joao Silva, Ken Oosterbroek and Kevin Carter, who made a name for themselves going into the townships to capture first-hand the violence that erupted in South Africa between ANC supporters and the predominantly Zulu Inkhata party after the release of Nelson Mandela and prior to the first democratic elections. As a guide to the different factions and as a record of brutality, the book cannot be faulted. The British media predictably only ever reported the more sensational atrocities, and The Bang-Bang Club is a potent reminder of the ever-present violence and hatred that have dominated South African life since the early 1990s. Where the authors are on shakier ground is in the analysis of their own condition. Marinovich writes of the "addiction to adrenaline" in his pursuit of the story, and we do get to hear the downside of the booze, drugs and failed relationships that were a by-product of this addiction. But though Marinovich admits to questioning his motivation in getting up close and personal to the violence, he rather lets himself and the others off the hook with the notion that everything is justified by the importance of the story. This is as maybe, but another interesting line of enquiry might have been to ask whether the photographers' sublimated their own violent urges through their work. In other words, they let the death squads act out their feelings, while still retaining a moral high ground. The Bang-Bang Club exacted a high price of membership; Oosterbroek was killed by a stray bullet, Carter committed suicide and Marinovich was badly wounded and it's certainly not a club I would have been keen to join myself. But whatever you might think of the authors' psychiatric condition, you have to give them credit for exposing the stories that other journalists refused to touch. As The Bang-Bang Club might have said, "It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it." --John Crace -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verf�gbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

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Most people, upon hearing gunfire, would run away and hide. Conflict photojournalists have the opposite reaction: they actually look for trouble, and when they find it, get as close as possible and stand up to get the best shot. This thirst for the shot and the seeming nonchalance to the risks entailed earned Greg Marinovich, Joao Silva, Ken Oosterbroek, and Kevin Carter the moniker of the Bang-Bang Club. Oosterbroek was killed in township violence just days before South Africa's historic panracial elections. Carter, whose picture of a Sudanese child apparently being stalked by a vulture won him a Pulitzer Prize, killed himself shortly afterwards. Another of their posse, Gary Bernard, who had held Oosterbroek as he died, also committed suicide.

The Bang-Bang Club is a memoir of a time of rivalry, comradeship, machismo, and exhilaration experienced by a band of young South African photographers as they documented their country's transition to democracy. We forget too easily the political and ethnic violence that wracked South Africa as apartheid died a slow, spasmodic death. Supporters of the ANC and Inkatha fought bloody battles every day. The white security forces were complicit in fomenting and enabling some of the worst violence. All the while, the Bang-Bang Club took pictures. And while they did, they were faced with the moral dilemma of how far they should go in pursuit of an image, and whether there was a point at which they should stop their shooting and try to intervene.

This is a riveting and appalling book. It is simply written--these guys are photographers, not writers--but extremely engaging. They were adrenaline junkies who partied hard and prized the shot above all else. None of them was a hero; these men come across as overweeningly ambitious, egotistical, reckless, and selfish, though also brave and even principled. As South Africans, they were all invested in their country's future, even though, as whites, they were strangers in their own land as they covered the Hostel wars in the black townships. The mixture of the romantic appeal of the war correspondent with honest assessments of their personal failings is part of what makes this account so compelling and so singular among books of its ilk. --J. Riches -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verf�gbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

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Die Wirklichkeit über das Südafrika der frühen 90er Jahre 23. August 2003

Von Ein Kunde

Format:Taschenbuch

Es gibt unzählige Bücher über die Ereignisse des Südafrikas vor der Regierungsübernahme durch die Administration Mandela. Viele beschäftigen sich mit der Gewalt in den Townships und deren spätere Aufarbeitung durch die "Truth und Reconciliation Commission", statt vieler das Buch von Rotberg / Thompson. Im vorliegenden Buch von Marinovich / Silva wird ohne jede Beschönigung noch einmal dieses dunkle Kapitel südafrikanischer Geschichte aufgeschlagen. Die drastische Schilderungen von Lynchjustiz durch einen Blut-geilen Mob und deren - wohl nur unzulänglichen - Bewältigung durch die Autoren und deren Kollegen machen dieses Buch so lesenswert. Denn gerade die direkte Sprache verdeutlicht einem aufs Neue die schrecklichen Ereignisse dieser Zeit. Dies führt dazu, daß man zum einen geeignet ist das Buch in einem Zug zu lesen, jedoch wegen der geschilderten bestialischen Gewalt am liebsten weglegen möchte. Ich habe dieses Buch nicht mehr zur Seite legen können, wobei ich jedoch des öfteren wegen der beschriebenen maßlosen Gewalt häufig über die Aktionen reflektierte. Wer einen persönlichen Bericht über die Ereignisse haben will und nicht eine Betrachtung von der Metaebene lesen will, sollte dieses Buch über die vier südafrikanischen Photojournalisten als Ergänzung zu all den wissenschaftlichen Abhandlungen lesen.

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2 von 2 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich

tolles Buch,sehr interessant,lesenswert!!!! 18. August 2006

Von Claire Bell

Für Leute die ein wenig mehr über die Vergangenheit Südafrikas heraus finden bzw. verstehen möchten ohne von der Meinung des Autors allzu doll beeinflusst zu werden, sollte dieses Buch zur Hand nehmen. Man findet kaum eine solch ehrliches Lektüre, die von den Geschehnissen von 1990-1994 schonungslos (auch über die Autoren selbst)berichtet. Meiner Meinung nach ist eine gewisse "Vorbildung" von nöten, um die Autoren und Gruppen zu verstehen. Man sollte wissen, was zu der Zeit (naja erst ca.16 Jahre) in Südafrika los war, bevor man anfängt zu lesen.

Ausserdem sind manche Szenen nichts für schwache Nerven und diese Dokumentation dient nicht der Unterhaltung, sondern der Information. Ein kalter Schauer läuft einem über den Rücken, wenn man sich beim lesen daran erinnert, dass alle Ereignisse wirklich geschehen sind und vielleicht an Freunde unten denkt,schwarz und weiss, die das alles durchgemacht haben.

Erwähnenswert finde ich auch die Hintergrundinformationen, die man über den Beruf des Fotografen erfährt.

Ich denke, um die gegenwärtigen Verhältnisse in SA zu verstehen, sollte man "The Making of the New South Africa" gelesen haben!

Living on the edge 18. April 2001

Format:Gebundene Ausgabe

This book is moving. The way Marinovich describes his development from being one of the blind, deaf and dumb white South Africans to someone who is increasingly aware of the goings-on behind the Hostel War, is intriguing. The strong point of this account is not fine-tuned writing, but Marinovich's and Silva's sharp observations of the social and personal changes around them. They managed to remain honest with themselves and didn't miss any signs of personal selfishness, grudge towards colleagues or the deep moral conflict that all the photographers went through after winning fame through their pictures. Even after reading this, the average reader will find it hard to understand what made the guys walk into such extreme situations and how they were able to press the shutter all the time. As a critic in The Times said, this book is "not for the beach". The description of desparate situations may pull some readers down like a whirlpool. But it is a remarkable account of the darker sides of human nature.

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Very good reading, very bad pictures

The book was after all quite disappointing. When i buy a documentary book about a bunch of war-photographers with the subtitle 'Snapshots from a hidden war' one could expect that... Lesen Sie weiter...

Ver�ffentlicht am 4. Februar 2009 von Thorsten Schmiedel

Bang-bang Club: The Making of the New South Africa [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

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