- Neil Davis (cameraman)
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For other people named Neil Davis, see Neil Davis (disambiguation).
Neil Brian Davis (14 February 1934 – 9 September 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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Early life
Davis was born in rural Tasmania in 1934. At the age of 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.
War correspondent
In early 1964 Davis went to Borneo to cover the confrontation between Indonesia and Malaysia. 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 not with-standing, 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.
During the Tet Offensive in early 1968, Davis covered action in Saigon and Huế. It was during his period in Huế that Davis crossed path with Brigadier General Nguyen Ngoc Loan. Davis recalls that on meeting Nguyen Ngoc Loan he "lifted his arm to which he had strapped a machine pistol, pointed it at me and said 'Some day I kill you'". While apparently shocking, Davis knew this was not true and really a reference to events that had occurred earlier during the offensive.[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 30 April, 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 26 May 1975.[2]
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 Syria, accused of spying for Israel.
Death
After nearly 20 dangerous assignments on the battle fronts, "charmed" Neil Davis was killed in Bangkok on 9 September 1985, while filming a minor Thai coup attempt that ended after only a few hours. Davis and his American soundman Bill Latch were 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 in their direction. Davis and Latch were killed by shrapnel. Davis died instantly, and the camera fell to the ground, still running. The last scene recorded by his camera was of the fatally wounded Latch crawling for cover.[3]
Latch, a former missionary, had reservations working with Davis, and knew one day his recklessness would be his undoing, according to a colleague of his from Voice of America. It was no secret Davis also had his own reservations -always meticulous in the care and maintenance of his equipment, in private Davis questioned Latch's ability to meet his standards. [4] Davis was a victim of technology which may have contributed to his sudden death. He had always worked by himself in dangerous situations, preferring not to make life-and-death decisions for others. But for the past six years of his reporting life, he was tethered to a sound man "to shoulder the heavy battery and cassette pack, linked to the nine-kilogram camera by a video cable." [5]
Commemoration
In 1986, Davis was posthumously entered into the TV Week Logie Awards' Hall of Fame.[6]
His work has been commemorated in the documentary Frontline by David Bradbury and in Tim Bowden's biography One Crowded Hour[7] which takes its title from a verse by Thomas Osbert Mordaunt: "One crowded hour of glorious life is worth an age without a name" [8] a line that Davis wrote in the front of each of his work diaries. The award winning Augie March song "One Crowded Hour" was composed by Glenn Richards while he was reading One Crowded Hour.
Footnotes
- ^ Bowden, Tim (1987). One Crowded Hour: Neil Davis, Combat cameraman. Collins, Sydney, Australia. p. 160. ISBN 0002174960.
- ^ "Headline: Communist Saigon / Laurie Report". Vanderbilt Television News Archive. Vanderbilt University. http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/program.pl?ID=482905. Retrieved 18 October 2007.
- ^ 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
- ^ Bowden, T. One Crowded Hour: Neil Davis, Combat cameraman (1987) Collins, Sydney, Australia.p. 409. ISBN 0002174960
- ^ Bowden, T. One Crowded Hour: Neil Davis, Combat cameraman (1987) Collins, Sydney, Australia.p. 5. ISBN 0002174960
- ^ Nick Place and Michael Roberts (editors) (2006). 50 years of television in Australia. Hardie Grant, Prahan (Vic.), Australia, pg. 177
- ^ Bowden, T. One Crowded Hour: Neil Davis, Combat cameraman (1987) Collins, Sydney, Australia. ISBN 0002174960
- ^ Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (1950) OUP, London,p.283
External links
Categories:- War photographers
- Journalists killed while covering military conflicts
- Deaths by firearm in Thailand
- Filmed deaths
- 1934 births
- 1985 deaths
- People from Tasmania
- Australian photojournalists
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