Neil Davis
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Neil Brian Davis (February 14, 1934 - September 9, 1985) was an Australian combat cameraman who achieved worldwide recognition for his work as a photojournalist during the Vietnam War and other Indochinese conflicts.
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[edit] Early life
Davis was born in rural Tasmania in 1934. At age 14, Davis left school to work in the Tasmanian Government Film Unit. In 1961 he joined the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) as a cine-cameraman but left in December 1963 to take a job as Visnews's cameraman and correspondent for south-east Asia, based in Singapore.
[edit] War Correspondent
In early 1964 Davis went to Borneo to cover the confrontation between Indonesia and Malaya. Shortly afterwards Davis made his first visits to Vietnam and Laos. Although he reported from across Asia, he is best remembered for his long association with, and reporting on, the war in Indo-China.
Unusual among foreign correspondents, Davis chose to film the war from the South Vietnamese perspective, shooting acclaimed combat footage on many occasions and acquiring a reputation for skill and luck. He was driven by the desire to obtain the best film he could and was well-known for his neutrality, crossing, on one occasion, to film from the Viet Cong side. Davis' main preoccupation was with filming the effects of war and combat on individuals. His neutrality notwithstanding, Davis earned the ire of United States military authorities, but this did not stop American news networks seeking out his film.
In September 1968 Visnews sent Davis to London, but he returned to Vietnam at the first opportunity.
On 1 February 1968, during the Tet Offensive, Davis filmed one of the most famous images of the Vietnam War: the killing of Nguyen Van Lem by Brigadier General Nguyen Ngoc Loan, the chief of the national police. Lem had been captured by South Vietnamese national police, who identified him as the captain of a Viet Cong assassination and revenge platoon, and accused him of murdering the families of police officers. He was brought before Brigadier General Nguyen Ngoc Loan, the chief of the national police, who briefly questioned him. General Nguyen then drew his sidearm and shot the prisoner.
Present at the shooting were still photographer Eddie Adams and Davis. Adam's photograph appeared on front pages around the world, and won a Pulitzer prize, in addition to eight other awards. Davis' film was played on the Huntley-Brinkley Report and elsewhere, in some cases the silent film embellished with the sound effect of a gunshot. General William Westmoreland would later write, "The photograph and film shocked the world, an isolated incident of cruelty in a broadly cruel war, but a psychological blow against the South Vietnamese nonetheless."[1]
Between 1970 and 1975 Davis spent increasing amounts of time in Cambodia and he moved to Phnom Penh in 1971. He was severely wounded on several occasions, once almost losing a leg, but was fit and determined enough to recover and continue his work. In June 1973 Davis left Visnews and became a freelancer. In April 1975, Davis chose to leave Phnom Penh with the American helicopter evacuation. Joined by NBC News Correspondent Jim Laurie, he flew to Vietnam to cover the final stage of the war. On April 30th, Davis filmed as North Vietnamese troops and T-54 tank number 834 famously broke through the gates to the Presidential Palace in Saigon. This image which has long remained a symbol of the American failure to stop Communism in [[Vietnam], was first broadcast on an NBC News Special Report: Communist Saigon narrated by Laurie on May 26, 1975. [1]
After Vietnam, Davis based himself in Bangkok, but travelled widely to cover stories in Angola, the Sudan, Uganda and Beirut. On 29 January 1977 he married Chou Ping, but the couple separated in 1980. The following year he was briefly imprisoned in Iraq, accused of spying for Israel.
[edit] Death
After nearly 20 dangerous assignments on the battle fronts, "charmed" Neil Davis met an incongruous death by shrapnel in Bangkok, while filming a minor Thai coup attempt that ended after only a few hours. Davis and his American soundman Bill Latch covering a radio tower that had been seized. A tank protected the gate to the tower. Davis set up his camera facing the tank and got ready to deliver his report. Without warning, the tank fired a round of ammunition. It hit a wall near Davis, killing him instantly. The camera fell to the ground, still running. The last scene recorded by his camera was of the fatally wounded Latch crawling for cover.[2]
His work has been commemorated in the documentary 'Frontline' and in his biography 'One Crowded Hour', which takes its title from a quote by Walter Scott "One crowded hour of glorious life is worth an age without a name", a line that Davis wrote in the front of his diary.
[edit] References
- ^ Quoted in Seib, Philip (1997). Headline Diplomacy: How News Coverage Affects Foreign Policy. Praeger Paperback, pg. 18. ISBN 0-275-95375-0.
- ^ Stan Wedeking and Jeffrey Alan Goldenberg "War Stories from the Nightly News Electronic Camera and Sound Operators are the Eyes and Ears of the Nightly News" in Fall/Winter 1995/1996 Operating Cameraman
