Double Karma by Daniel Gawthrop

Author:Daniel Gawthrop
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC019000 FICTION / Literary FIC037000 FICTION / Political FIC025000 FICTION / Psychological
Publisher: Cormorant Books
Published: 2023-04-22T00:00:00+00:00

16

Min:

It was hard living with Dad during those first few months back home when I could not afford my own place. After sharing our stories, we barely spoke and for the most part avoided each other until mealtimes, when one of us would cook. I’d only been back a few days when the Associated Press called to tell me that a short article about my reappearance was running the next day across the AP newswire. The story, which a desk staffer read to me over the phone, was faithful to the version I’d shared with Embassy staff in Bangkok. When I asked if they’d be running a photo with it, he said no, this was standard wire distribution for updating purposes, so there was no need for a pic. To my relief, he then confirmed that the only film AP had developed before returning everything to Dad the previous year were a couple of rolls from August ’88. The rest were unopened. He then asked if I’d be interested in doing an interview about my experience for a follow-up story. I declined, saying I wasn’t quite ready yet. But I did look forward to meeting him and other colleagues over a few beers.

As triumphant returns go, the AP staff reunion was an awkward affair. Colleagues and old acquaintances seemed glad to see me, but our encounters were brief and superficial — a handshake or a hug, a welcome back, and encouraging words about rebooting my career. Then they’d each move on. It seemed like everyone was walking on eggshells around me.

It was about the Thailand thing, my old boss told me. A lot of people didn’t understand how I could drop off the map for that long, despite knowing what I’d been through in Karen State. At my age, most photographers would want to jump right back into work.

So, how about now? I asked him. He shook his head and politely turned me down: unless I happened to have met Khun Sa while motorbiking through the Golden Triangle, and he invited me for tea with his fellow drug warlords and mercenaries — and I happened to take photos of them — then I would have some convincing to do to receive another gig from AP any time soon.

I understood. Meanwhile, there was almost no media follow-up from the AP wire story. What news value could there be in the confessions of a shell-shocked lensman who, rather than returning to the battlefield after going missing — which would have been the sexiest angle — or resurfacing immediately back home in the US after a daring escape, chose to sit out the real world for a year and a half while pursuing a dissolute life of skirt-chasing vagabondage in northern Thailand? But one mainstream daily newspaper did follow up on the AP story: the L.A. Times. After turning down AP, I changed my mind about doing an interview, telling the Times that I would give them an exclusive if they agreed to run one or more of my Burma photos — rather than a photo of me — with the story.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.