The Brazilian Photojournalist Joel Silva missed the birth of his son. 24 years ago, when he was born, Joel was working in a Colombian forest, documenting a guerrilla camp of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). “I didn’t attend the birth of my son. I stopped participating in several occasions of my personal life to dedicate myself to my professional life”, he told Agência Brasil.
Joel Silva has been a photographer for 29 years. A large part of his career was dedicated to the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo. It was there that he began covering major conflicts in several countries.
Some of his photos from this period went beyond borders and became the cover of the world’s main newspapers, such as a bomb that was launched by Muammar Gaddafi’s regime against the rebels in Libya. “I photographed the Colombian guerrilla in 2000, then I covered the military coup in Honduras, the occupation of Morro do Alemão [in Rio de Janeiro], the conflicts in Africa, the massacre in Cairo (Egypt), the Arab Spring in Libya and the Strip of Gaza”, he exemplified.
In one of these coverages, he was almost shot in the head: “I was covering the massacre, the riot of protesters in Cairo, when a shot hit the concrete and landed on my forehead. Thank God it was just a graze. And I continued covering it, I didn’t stop.”
The various and impactful photos and videos he produced during this period have now been brought together in a documentary that he produced himself and which was released in February to report what it is like to be a correspondent in conflict areas. Called “All the Wars I Saw” (“Todas as Guerras que eu Vi”), the documentary can be watched for free on YouTube and is based on a book he wrote, “Uma Fresta de Luz no Porão da Sociedade”.
“When I thought about the documentary, I thought about leaving a document of my experience in journalism, especially to my children. I want to leave this experience to them and to this generation of journalists, photographers and reporters who need a reference. I think this is a historic document,” he said.
Source: Agência Brasil