In the machine
On a tightly restricted press tour around the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Magnum’s Paolo Pellegrin photographed, as best he could, the detention center for terrorism suspects. Here he talks of how the limitations affected his work.
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. 2006. Terrorism suspects. Paolo Pellegrin/Magnum Photos
Immediately as you set your foot on the ground, you start going through the bureaucracy of the place. This military person welcomes you, you go through the X-ray machines, there’s a press person that is assigned to a particular journalist or a team, as we were, [Pellegrin was on a New York Times Magazine assignment with writer Tim Golden] that’s there to greet us. So you’re immediately in the machine.
It’s not particularly difficult to go to Guantanamo, very many journalists do, the problem is that the tour, the press tour as it’s called, is extremely controlled, obviously, by the military. So you go through the motions of this staged mechanism which normally lasts 2-3 days and basically you are shown what they want to show you.
There’s pretty strict instructions especially in a situation or place where you’re close to detainees. You’re absolutely not allowed to talk to them and obviously not hand over anything. There has to be a complete distance….
Continue reading 'In the machine'
Posted in Behind the image | |
E-Mail this | Print | | Comments (20) |
