App Shopper: The Bang Bang Club by Greg Marinovich and João Silva (Books)

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Jun 08 '11	New App: Free, v1.0

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The Bang Bang Club by Greg Marinovich and João Silva

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Photographers Ken Oosterbroek, Kevin Carter, Joao Silva and Greg Marinovich were some of the best war photographers in the world. They had among them two Pulitzer Prizes and a slew of international awards for their work covering the bloody township violence leading up to the first non-racial elections in South African history. But always being on top of the "bang bang" had terrible consequences.

In April 1994, days after Carter received the Pulitzer for his startling picture of a starving Sudanese toddler being stalked by a vulture, Marinovich and Oosterbroek were shot while covering a firefight outside Johannesburg. As Oosterbroek lay fatally injured, Silva was torn between taking pictures of his comrade and pulling him to safety. Three months after that shooting, Carter, who was out celebrating the Pulitzer at the time of his closest friend's death, took his own life.

The Bang Bang Club is Marinovich and Silva’s vivid account of the effects of civil war and political upheaval on those on the ground. Whether the battles are fought in Soweto or in Grozny, Hebron or Kosovo, the toll on the civilians caught in running battles and the young journalists who cover them is extraordinary. Using South Africa as the primary vehicle, the authors convey the passions and frustrations of those forced to watch their country teeter on the brink, trying to pull it back while armed only with a camera.

A feature film starring Ryan Phillippe, Taylor Kitsch and Malin Akerman based on the The Bang Bang Club was released in April 2011.

About the authors:

Greg Marinovich is a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer who spent 18 years doing conflict, documentary and news photography around the globe. His photographs have appeared in top international publications such as Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian of London, among others. He is chair of the World Press master class nominating committee for Africa, and was a World Press Photo judge in 1994 and 2005, as well as convenor of the FujiFilm awards in 2000. In 2009 he was the recipient of the Nat Nakasa award for courageous journalism.

João Silva is a photographer with The New York Times, whose honors include two World Press Photo awards and an Overseas Press Club award, and a lifetime achievement award from the Frontline Club. He has spent the last two decades covering conflicts around the globe. Born in Lisbon, Portugal, he lives with his wife and children in Johannesburg.

Reviews:

In 1993, a South African photographer named Kevin Carter won a Pulitzer Prize for a photo he had taken the previous year in Sudan. The picture of a vulture stalking a malnourished child generated as much controversy as prestige. Two months later, at the age of 33, he committed suicide. Carter had been an integral member of a group of war photographers known as the Bang Bang Club who made a name for themselves covering atrocities in South Africa, Sudan and Croatia. But Carter was the second to die. The first was Ken Oosterbroek, killed by police during an apartheid riot. The Bang Bang Club is a memoir written by the two surviving members, a gripping, often repulsive and ethically complex story of war and human brutality. It is also a story of depression and addiction. Needless to say, it is not easy reading. But the result is rewarding, because Marinovich and Silva are amazingly candid about their moral failings, lending credibility to something that might otherwise seem exploitative.
--Philadelphia Weekly

App Features:
Included in the app are:
•The complete book with more than 400 photographs interspersed with the text.
•Links to interactive features such as video, maps, and news stories related to the events in the book
•Photo Gallery with photos by chapter and more than 100 bonus photos
•Bookmarking capability
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