Diego Bunuel: The picture, the warzone, the journalism…
Can you tell me what it is takes to get the right picture in a conflict or a warzone?
I think it takes first experience. Like, if tomorrow you take someone who has never been in a conflict and you drop them in there it would be too much, they won’t be able to manage. And I think in my career, and the career of some other journalists that they do that, is that you go progressively. For example I started as a police reporter, in Miami, so I did gang wars. You go progressively into the conflict and then you start to go into real conflict zones you have to have a senior reporter that teaches you the ropes. Because there is all kind of things that you need to know about warzones, before going into it or else you die …
But what difficulties do you face in trying to get the right picture?
I don’t face any difficulties because I know where I am going , I know what story I am telling , I have my contacts on the ground, I always have a fixer with me which is a guy that facilitates , that translates , that has contacts . So before I leave for a story, I always have several weeks of preparation before. It is a whole process, you are not parachuted in a situation, you go to the situation, by preparing it by planning it and that is how you keep safe also.
We had a very interesting discussion here about embedded journalism, if it’s right or wrong and when it can help. What do you think?
It depends on who the journalist is. And there are two things: embedding for news, I don’t think it has any real purpose, because they will show you only what they want. But if you embed for feature news , when you are going to spend two three weeks a month with the unit , then that is very interesting because , the veneer that they are trying to present you will start cracking under the pressure of war. And that is where is interesting , that is when you finally can get in .But you might be with them for a whole week and don’t film anything because they are trying to pretend, but then after two weeks or three weeks they bring the mask down and then you can film .
Do you feel that people have started getting used to images that come from conflict and warzones?
Not only they are getting used to it but also they don’t want to see them anymore. There was a very interesting study made in France of interviewing people before the evening news and people where afraid to watch the evening news, because they were going to see death and destruction and I think that people, they might overdose on violence. After a while, you cannot deal with it or you don’t want to be affected by it.
But this is the true story. Aren’t you supposed to show that on the news?
It is one story. I think the true story is why the dead bodies are there. I think that this is the real job of the journalist, not showing the dead bodies, is explaining to you, why these dead bodies are there and who is responsible for it. And I think that is our job.
You have been in many conflict and warzones, have done many reports. What are your thoughts at the end of the day?
I’ve been doing this for almost eleven years now, war correspondence. When I was younger, I wanted to go back to go back in the warzone, because I was born in Paris with people talking about their daily lives and I was thinking “oh this is ridiculous”, and then finally, I realized that the real life is not the exceptional. The real life is the mundane, the daily life that I have .Because when I go to war zones , you only go to find moment of exceptional in the lives of the people , and you don’t really live moments that are normal. So now I am a little bit more mature, and I realize that I can live with my baggage inside of me. When you go to a warzone, you always leave a part of your soul there. A part of your soul stays there. But also you built a part of your soul. And then is also a very good think psychologically for you because you don’t complain about the stupid things.
Have you ever thought of stop doing it?
No not for the moment. But I also have changed my job. I used to be a war correspondent just doing war and know I am a correspondent doing stories in warzones, but they are not related to violence or to death and destruction and I having to be there. So I have changed a little bit my perspective.
What is the important thing to know when you want going to be a journalist at a warzone or conflict area?
Why do you want to go there. Do you want to go there to be famous? Do you want to go there to be excited by the events? That is the real question. Why do you want to do journalism, first of all, and then why do you want to be a war correspondent. Is it for fame? Because it looks good to say “hey I am a war correspondent”? I think that the very important think and I started when I was 18-19 years old as a print journalist in City Hall. So you start, and you evolve as a journalist. But if you say I want to be a war journalist, before saying I want to be a journalist, then there is a problem.
Why did you want to be a war journalist?
Because I grew up as a child with friends of my parents at the dinner table, that were journalists in Washington Post and New York Times and they talked about Vietnam ,and about Africa wars , about Afghanistan with the Russians and I thought this is so incredible. And since I was young I was a fan of history. I read all about the World War I, and the World War II, the 20th century history mostly, and so being a war correspondent for me allows me to live in moments where history is defined. I think that is the most fascinating thing at least for me. Is a way for me to travel not in time but in history and the making of it?
Tania Georgoupli
