The images that Howe took that day led to him winning
best photo essay and photographer of the year
from the Picture Editors’ Guild.
It was a professional high,
but after the incident and the events that followed
(the MoD first asked the Telegraph not to print the photograph, then agreed publication if it were censored, so the worst injuries were not shown; ‘I was told there wouldn’t be any repercussions, but then several months later, when the next Telegraph embed came up, I was told the MoD had refused my application,’ Howe said),
his mental health started to decline.
Unable to work, after months of hard partying he realised he ‘would probably end up dead’
and he changed track,
moving to a rented isolated finca in northern Spain
in an attempt
to
‘escape from the world’.
But he suffered from horrific nightmares and paranoia –
walking around the house
with the lights on but the shutters closed,
‘in case of snipers’.
He realised that he was suffering
from
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
best photo essay and photographer of the year
from the Picture Editors’ Guild.
It was a professional high,
but after the incident and the events that followed
(the MoD first asked the Telegraph not to print the photograph, then agreed publication if it were censored, so the worst injuries were not shown; ‘I was told there wouldn’t be any repercussions, but then several months later, when the next Telegraph embed came up, I was told the MoD had refused my application,’ Howe said),
his mental health started to decline.
Unable to work, after months of hard partying he realised he ‘would probably end up dead’
and he changed track,
moving to a rented isolated finca in northern Spain
in an attempt
to
‘escape from the world’.
walking around the house
with the lights on but the shutters closed,
‘in case of snipers’.
He realised that he was suffering
from
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
PHOTO:http://www.jasonphowe.com/ and http://blog.photoshelter.com |
from amateur to travel to photojournalism to a war photographer
Howe was 13 when he first picked up a camera – photographing his school band and wildlife around Woodbridge, East Anglia, where he grew up. After leaving school aged 16, he worked in a camera shop in Ipswich, where he would meet professional photographers who had returned from assignments around the world.
Inspired, he decided to try to make a living as a travel photographer. From 1994 onwards he made 25 trips to Latin America, visiting 18 countries and getting published in travel magazines.
PHOTO: http://www.jasonphowe.com/ |
PHOTO: http://www.jasonphowe.com/ |
PHOTO: http://www.monfilspictures.com/jason-howe.html |
PHOTO: www.jasonphowe.com |
PHOTO: http://www.monfilspictures.com/jason-howe.html |
PHOTO: http://www.monfilspictures.com/jason-howe.html |
PHOTO: http://www.monfilspictures.com/jason-howe.html |
In November 2011 I was on an operation with British Forces in Helmand province, Afghanistan. I followed 6 soldiers through a doorway into a compound, each of us stepping in the footsteps of the other after the ground had been swept with a bomb detector. As the soldier behind me stepped onto the ground I had just left, an IED exploded and blew off both of his legs. After making images of the medics working on him, I joined the stretcher party and helped carry him towards the inbound MEDIVAC helicopter. There was a high threat that the ground we were covering may be hiding more IEDs. If even one of us stepped on another one, we would have had a mass casualty situation. As if this was not bad enough, as the stretcher bearers ran towards the helicopter a Taliban sniper opened fire.
PHOTO: www.jasonphowe.com |
PHOTO: www.jasonphowe.com |
PHOTO: www.jasonphowe.com |
PHOTO: www.jasonphowe.com |
Appearance of his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms
He worked more than 400 days in Iraq. ‘Eventually I stopped having any kind of real emotional reaction,’ he said. ‘I would come back from photographing a suicide bomb with bits of people all over the place and order some food to eat while editing the pictures. It became quite clinical.’
He sank into a deep depression. ‘My pictures hadn’t made any difference, so I couldn’t see the point to anything,’ he said. ‘Why bother getting up? Why bother washing?
PHOTO: http://www.monfilspictures.com/jason-howe.html |
PTSD, his main debilitating issue is depression. ‘I have a very dark view of the world where, whatever I do, it doesn’t change,’ he said. But it is compounded by problems concentrating and hyper-vigilance – he exhaustively imagines the worst outcomes of every situation.
He also feels anger. And at times he feels abandoned by the media industry, but ‘then I feel I have nothing to complain about since it was my choice to go to war, and I have to deal with the consequences myself’. Because he has not been able to work, Howe is now facing eviction from his farmhouse. He is planning a road trip around Europe, photographing people who seek a simpler, more sustainable way to live than modern life offers.
PHOTO: James Arthur Allen |
‘I am a very positive person, a fighter and a survivor,’ he said at the end. ‘But it is a hard battle and one that I do not always foresee there being the energy available to fight.’
'War comes to an end,
but
many bring back a burden of
physical and psychological damage.'
many bring back a burden of
physical and psychological damage.'
-Simon Akam
PHOTO:http://www.jasonphowe.com/ and http://blog.photoshelter.com #Sites thankfully consulted, shared and recommended for more text or viewing his photo gallery:
www.jasonphowe.com
www.conflictpics.com
http://www.fotoevidence.com/jason-p-howe
http://jasonphowe.photoshelter.com/image/I0000UABJmpSAuXo
http://blog.photoshelter.com/2013/08/survival-tips-for-the-aspiring-conflict-photographer/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/11211285/War-photographer-Jason-Howes-battle-with-PTSD.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Beautiful_Mind_%28film%29
(A Beautiful Mind: a biopic of the meteoric rise of John Forbes Nash Jr., a math prodigy able to solve problems that baffled the greatest of minds. And how he overcame years of suffering through schizophrenia to win the Nobel Prize)
#Photography related more blog post from the same author:
kevin carter
anja niedringhaus
steve mccurry
macro methods
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