If you’re seeking motivation or know how about becoming a photojournalist, Tim Page’s story may just inspire you.
The award winning, British born Page has covered major conflicts across the globe, had a character based on him in Coppola’s movie Apocalypse Now, has written at least nine books, has photographs in places like The Smithsonian and The Imperial War Museum and won awards such as the Robert Capa and American Society of Media Photographers.
So even if you haven’t heard of him, you’ve probably seen his images. So how did it all begin?
Page, 65 years, began life with itchy feet, cycling all the way around Scandinavia when he was just 14 years. At 17 he left for Amsterdam where he worked in a chewing gum factory, the Heinken brewery and even as a hash smuggler. But he soon split from there and drove a Volkswagon combi across to Asia until it blew up in India in 1962. He then found himself working in Laos by 1963, living with a friend who had a string for UPI. When the friend left he gave Page his string and the 18 year old found himself riding the streets on a motorcycle taking pictures during an attempted coup.
He filed the images by cycling to the river at Nong Khai and canoeing across the border to a US air force base in Thailand. For four days Page provided exclusive coverage – a black and white photo with a blown up airstrip is the first picture he ever sold.
When the coup finished the UPI bureau chief from Saigon arrived and offered him a job. And without further training he was suddenly launched into the Vietnam war. A few days later he was in Saigon and told “don’t pass go, don’t look back, you are now a snapper”.
“It wasn’t divine intervention, just things clicked. You don’t question why they click. I can’t explain it. I was in the wrong place at the right time or right place at the wrong time. I suppose it’s learning how to use your luck.”
Page (above) during an interview on Talking Heads.
And luck he’s had, being wounded four times and even pronounced DOA during one altercation. He covered the Vietnam War for five years and worked for Time-Life, UPI, Paris Match and Associated Press. He covered the Six Day War in the Middle East in 1967, conflicts in East Timor, Afghanistan and the Solomon Islands to name just a few.
Part of his success probably comes down to what he calls an addiction or obsession both with getting the ideal photograph, travelling and telling the truth of what’s going on. He told Talking Heads in an interview “once you get on that edge and you start to grip on that edge, you’re so caught up in the event that you forget about the danger of it.
“You’re somehow committed. You’re so committed and yet the end result is, you’re not empty-handed. You have these images you’ve shot, these frames you’ve made. With a bit of luck, you’ve got a spread in a magazine, which gets you a beer in the odd pub.”
But things have clicked for Page to earn him more than just a cold beer; he is now a lecturer at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia and uses his own skills to train budding photographers in war torn places like Afghanistan and Vietnam.
