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The journey is the destination : the journals of Dan Eldon
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First published August 1, 1997
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June 15, 2013
The real story:
Here's my story:
In December 2004, I was working at a used bookstore. I had been living in Pittsburgh for just over a year, and I was already tired. A lot had happened over that year - a lot good, a lot crazy, a lot just whatever. I had new friends in a new city and I was loving every minute of it, and we were out drinking quite a bit. In retrospect I feel like I was hungover probably more often than not during that time. And in December a whole lot of shit happened all at once: I was going through a messy long-distance break-up with my boyfriend of eight years; one of my coworkers and one of my closest friends at the time turned out to be harboring some crazy, intense crush for me and that was coming to a head at the time once he realized I was breaking up with my boyfriend and that turned out to be awkward; and I was beginning to make out with a different coworker on a semi-regular basis.
It was a lot. And I was confused and nervous and anxious. One day on my lunch break I saw this book on the shelf. I took it to the back room and did what I normally did during that month: I sat at the table with my hooded sweatshirt on with the hood up and my headphones on. This day I flipped through this book and I felt things slowly begin to change inside.
This young man who had died just over ten years before I was flipping through this collection of his journals had done so much in his 22 years - he raised money for a variety of causes, he traveled to 46 countries, he was a photojournalist for Reuters. Before #firstworldproblems became an actual thing, I realized that I was suffering from that guilty hashtag. Realizing that didn't necessarily make my life any easier right then, but it put a lot into perspective. And I fell in love with this book and this dead young man.
Welcome to my life, I have a crush on a dead 22-year-old.
This collection of his journals edited and compiled by his mother is creative and touching, colorful and sometimes mysterious. He collaged the shit out photographs that he took, photos featuring himself and his entourage of besties including his younger sister. These images are exceptionally touching to me - the relationship Dan had with his sister Amy was tight and you can see it in the few photos that include the two of them. I can't help but be envious of this life they lived, on safaris in Africa, living their lives as young as they were, in a way I can't imagine living my life at the ages they were in these photographs. Hell, I probably couldn't live my life quite that way now at just on the brink of 35.
Eldon's journals inspired me at the time and have continued to inspire me. What he did in these journals is what I always wanted to do but never understood how. I'm a visual learner but have trouble getting from Point A to Point B, but looking through this book makes it all absolutely evident and clear to me. It appears to open up something in my brain, some sort of mental block, so my thoughts can move more clearly and creatively. Maybe it's the removal of self-consciousness, who knows. I don't care. It happens.
Looking through this has always made me want to play with paint and glue, two things I absolutely love anyway. I'm a photo-taker and I do things with those photos, sometimes to the point where they are completely unrecognizable from the state of which they started. Dan appears to have had the same urge. What I really want to learn from this is how to actually physically travel while journaling in this fashion while on the road. Maybe I'm too frenetic, but so far I haven't been able to do it. I require too much downtime to be able to create, I wish that wasn't the case. I like to spread out and get grungy and dirty and I can't always do that on the road, or on the train, or on a ferry. Instead I collect and take photos and put it all in a box and eventually, someday, put it all together. It just never quite comes together in the same way that I want. I feel if I look through Dan's journals enough, I'll figure out his secret. But then some people just have those sorts of skills, the sort of magic in his fingertips to make life look so easy, even during such painful times in his life. As someone who is, by nature and by practice, so careful and secretive, I'm somewhat envious at how open Dan could be in his work. I'm getting there, but I'm not there yet.
I like to flip through this book when I'm having a hard time. I no longer work at the used bookstore, I no longer communicate with the ex-boyfriend and haven't (luckily) for years, I no longer communicate with the stalker ex-coworker/ex-friend, and I'm actually still with the same guy that I was making out with on a semi-regular basis at the time. So things have gotten better since the days of sitting in the back room with my hood up and my music blasting in my ears. I'm less anxious and less nervous and a hell of a lot less vulnerable. But when I have that urge in my blood to travel and run and live, one of the first places I turn (if I can't actually travel) is flip through Eldon's journals.
I wish I had the chance to know him. The beauty of this book is that in a way, I do know him. And someday, maybe, someone will go through my own journals and have a similar feeling as I did going through his. Even if the only people to see mine are my boyfriend or my family.
I want everyone to experience this book at least once. This kid was collaging and journaling before collaging and journaling were things people did and posted on the internet. I wonder what he would be doing with his art today if he had not died such a tragic death at the hands of the people he was trying to help.
This book is personal to me and shit. This book reminds me of how far I've come, how much I've grown, how it felt to fall in love again, how it feels to create, how it feels to live (even if only in my way, which is a way that is confusing to so many people because it's not the same as their way), how it feels to open a book and realize nothing inside me will ever be quite the same again.
This review will likely be revised, edited, and/or re-written throughout time.
My son, Dan Eldon, a Reuters photographer, was stoned to death in Somalia in July 1993 by a mob reacting to the United Nations bombing raid on the suspected headquarters of General Mohammed Farah Aidid. Only twenty-two when he died, Dan had already achieved prominence for his work as a war photographer. But his photographs told only half the story. The other half lay hidden away in seventeen black-bound journals filled with collages, writings, drawings, and photographs.
-from the introduction written by Kathy Eldon, mother of Dan
Here's my story:
In December 2004, I was working at a used bookstore. I had been living in Pittsburgh for just over a year, and I was already tired. A lot had happened over that year - a lot good, a lot crazy, a lot just whatever. I had new friends in a new city and I was loving every minute of it, and we were out drinking quite a bit. In retrospect I feel like I was hungover probably more often than not during that time. And in December a whole lot of shit happened all at once: I was going through a messy long-distance break-up with my boyfriend of eight years; one of my coworkers and one of my closest friends at the time turned out to be harboring some crazy, intense crush for me and that was coming to a head at the time once he realized I was breaking up with my boyfriend and that turned out to be awkward; and I was beginning to make out with a different coworker on a semi-regular basis.
It was a lot. And I was confused and nervous and anxious. One day on my lunch break I saw this book on the shelf. I took it to the back room and did what I normally did during that month: I sat at the table with my hooded sweatshirt on with the hood up and my headphones on. This day I flipped through this book and I felt things slowly begin to change inside.
This young man who had died just over ten years before I was flipping through this collection of his journals had done so much in his 22 years - he raised money for a variety of causes, he traveled to 46 countries, he was a photojournalist for Reuters. Before #firstworldproblems became an actual thing, I realized that I was suffering from that guilty hashtag. Realizing that didn't necessarily make my life any easier right then, but it put a lot into perspective. And I fell in love with this book and this dead young man.
Welcome to my life, I have a crush on a dead 22-year-old.
This collection of his journals edited and compiled by his mother is creative and touching, colorful and sometimes mysterious. He collaged the shit out photographs that he took, photos featuring himself and his entourage of besties including his younger sister. These images are exceptionally touching to me - the relationship Dan had with his sister Amy was tight and you can see it in the few photos that include the two of them. I can't help but be envious of this life they lived, on safaris in Africa, living their lives as young as they were, in a way I can't imagine living my life at the ages they were in these photographs. Hell, I probably couldn't live my life quite that way now at just on the brink of 35.
Eldon's journals inspired me at the time and have continued to inspire me. What he did in these journals is what I always wanted to do but never understood how. I'm a visual learner but have trouble getting from Point A to Point B, but looking through this book makes it all absolutely evident and clear to me. It appears to open up something in my brain, some sort of mental block, so my thoughts can move more clearly and creatively. Maybe it's the removal of self-consciousness, who knows. I don't care. It happens.
Looking through this has always made me want to play with paint and glue, two things I absolutely love anyway. I'm a photo-taker and I do things with those photos, sometimes to the point where they are completely unrecognizable from the state of which they started. Dan appears to have had the same urge. What I really want to learn from this is how to actually physically travel while journaling in this fashion while on the road. Maybe I'm too frenetic, but so far I haven't been able to do it. I require too much downtime to be able to create, I wish that wasn't the case. I like to spread out and get grungy and dirty and I can't always do that on the road, or on the train, or on a ferry. Instead I collect and take photos and put it all in a box and eventually, someday, put it all together. It just never quite comes together in the same way that I want. I feel if I look through Dan's journals enough, I'll figure out his secret. But then some people just have those sorts of skills, the sort of magic in his fingertips to make life look so easy, even during such painful times in his life. As someone who is, by nature and by practice, so careful and secretive, I'm somewhat envious at how open Dan could be in his work. I'm getting there, but I'm not there yet.
I like to flip through this book when I'm having a hard time. I no longer work at the used bookstore, I no longer communicate with the ex-boyfriend and haven't (luckily) for years, I no longer communicate with the stalker ex-coworker/ex-friend, and I'm actually still with the same guy that I was making out with on a semi-regular basis at the time. So things have gotten better since the days of sitting in the back room with my hood up and my music blasting in my ears. I'm less anxious and less nervous and a hell of a lot less vulnerable. But when I have that urge in my blood to travel and run and live, one of the first places I turn (if I can't actually travel) is flip through Eldon's journals.
I wish I had the chance to know him. The beauty of this book is that in a way, I do know him. And someday, maybe, someone will go through my own journals and have a similar feeling as I did going through his. Even if the only people to see mine are my boyfriend or my family.
I want everyone to experience this book at least once. This kid was collaging and journaling before collaging and journaling were things people did and posted on the internet. I wonder what he would be doing with his art today if he had not died such a tragic death at the hands of the people he was trying to help.
This book is personal to me and shit. This book reminds me of how far I've come, how much I've grown, how it felt to fall in love again, how it feels to create, how it feels to live (even if only in my way, which is a way that is confusing to so many people because it's not the same as their way), how it feels to open a book and realize nothing inside me will ever be quite the same again.
This review will likely be revised, edited, and/or re-written throughout time.
For more information on Dan Eldon and his work, please visit daneldon.com.
January 10, 2007
My parents got me this book for Christmas when I was in highschool. I think this book, more than any other, has influenced how I look at a page. How i view biographical content. It is both beautiful and haunting, and sadly unfinished. A compilation of sketchbook/journal excerpts from young photographer Dan Eldon. For a better biography that any I could write visit the website here: http://www.daneldon.org/about/index.html
August 10, 2024
Beautiful art work...and photography...Reminds me of the Journal's of Peter Beard.
July 6, 2007
Dan Eldon is one those incredibly inspirational people who accomplished more good in his short 22 years on this Earth than most of us will in our entire lives. And ironically, he was killed by the people he was trying to help. This book of his journals, is inspiring, and haunting and saddens you at the thought of what this young man could have accomplished had he been given more years. He was truly a humanitarian and an artist.
August 29, 2012
Very, very interesting; not exactly a book you can "read" read. It's definitely inspiring to look through if you feel that you're stuck in your own sketchbook/journaling/whatever keeping, or art in general. There's a disconcerting, uncomfortable edge to it, as well, though. Inevitably it is marked by who Eldon was; by which i mean, though his mother speaks of him as being open-minded, there are some instances in the book where i couldn't help but think, "Well, that's uncomfortable." It's also strange because one gets the sense that a lot of what Eldon put into his books is fictional, like he created fictions but used the real people he knew around him (which then raises the question: did he use uncomfortable things because he didn't see them as such, or because he was making a point?). So for me, it creates more questions than anything else. There's many layers to the pages, & not just literally. It makes you wonder what you'll find the further you dig.
May 14, 2009
Stunning and moving.
January 11, 2022
By the time he was twenty-two, Dan Eldon had led a relief mission across Africa; worked as a graphic designer in New York; studied (intermittently) at four colleges; traveled through Europe, Africa, Japan, and the US; founded a charity for Mozambiquan refugees; directed a film; written a book; started up his own photography business; and become a photojournalist for Reuters news agency, covering the famine and civil war in Somalia. There, in 1993, he was killed in an eruption of mob violence while on assignment. In a world of rules and regularity, Eldon was a renegade, a risk-taker, and an adventurer. But, despite all his travels, he knew that the interior landscape is the only one truly worth exploring, and this is the journey he dedicated himself to recording. His is no ordinary journal; it is an astonishing seventeen-volume collage of photos, drawings, words, maps, clippings, paint, scraps, shards, and trash that reveals his strange and vivid life. The Journey is the Destination offers a selection of pages from these extraordinary journals, at once the vision of an artist in his prime and the unrestrained outpourings of a young man just beginning to live.
October 24, 2018
Simply stunning.
The tragic loss of a brilliant young man in the horrors of war as he tried to bring truth through his camera lenses.
I listened to his mother Kath Eldon speak to us young photojournalists at the Eddie Adams Photojournalism Workshop just a few years after the loss of her beloved son Dan. She was so inspiring. Inspired us to seek that truth that Dan sought to reveal and did reveal.
This is my favorite photo/art book. Inspires me every day as a photographer though I do not shoot war or foreign conflicts. I seek to Shoot Truth To Power. The Journey is the Destination reminds me of that need to do so every day.
The tragic loss of a brilliant young man in the horrors of war as he tried to bring truth through his camera lenses.
I listened to his mother Kath Eldon speak to us young photojournalists at the Eddie Adams Photojournalism Workshop just a few years after the loss of her beloved son Dan. She was so inspiring. Inspired us to seek that truth that Dan sought to reveal and did reveal.
This is my favorite photo/art book. Inspires me every day as a photographer though I do not shoot war or foreign conflicts. I seek to Shoot Truth To Power. The Journey is the Destination reminds me of that need to do so every day.
February 19, 2020
This book was an amazing experience about a young man who died too soon. At the time of his death he was a photojournalist in Somalia. He was only 22 when he was stoned and beat to death in a riot. He already was a talented photographer/journalist, writer, artist, organizer and philanthropist. He organized trips to East Africa to help impoverished peoples. The preface is lovingly written by his mother. The book is a compilation and distillation of many of his journals graphically illustrated with drawings, collages and photographs. I think that someone with an art background would really appreciate this book. He was VERY special and very talented.
October 6, 2025
This was an excellent memoir of a young man's short life. Of his dream to explore the world on his own terms and to try and right the wrongs he saw. It was also a wonderful way to showcase the dramatic work he created with his photography. It was all done in journals in a "mixed media - junk journaling" style such as is so popular now. Yet he was doing this on his own at a time when no one else had even heard of it. He also had grunge and graffiti down pat. It is both an interesting read and a fantastic reference for someone interested in journaling.
May 24, 2022
I am obsessed. This is a photography book and it took me longer than a reading book to finish. Dan's journals have so many details, such depth. I'm going to have to return to this over and over to go through everything. And I will. Already bought another one.
Such a tragedy that Dan left this world in such a cruel way at only 22. It would take me several lives to live the same he did.
Dan is one of a kind.
Such a tragedy that Dan left this world in such a cruel way at only 22. It would take me several lives to live the same he did.
Dan is one of a kind.
September 12, 2018
this is my second go around. still so beautiful, inspiring. creativity to strive for in my own...
January 6, 2019
Fascinating and tragic.
December 9, 2019
One of the most pivotal moments of my life picking up this book
March 9, 2021
I read this in high school and have since given this as a gift several times over.
December 7, 2022
Inspired my film journal.
October 11, 2024
This is a engulfing journal, it grips your soul tightly, elevates it while squeezing it.
June 20, 2022
it's a wonderful book, i love it, really good book, I highly recommend it
February 1, 2024
Very engaging to look at, visually striking, though sometimes impenetrably personal. (1997/2024)
“Greetings to the person reading these words 50 years from now”
— Dan Eldon / The Journey is the Destination: The Journals of Dan Eldon
“Greetings to the person reading these words 50 years from now”
— Dan Eldon / The Journey is the Destination: The Journals of Dan Eldon
October 22, 2018
This is a good type of readings, and an excelent book
December 29, 2009
Dan Eldon was 22 in 1993 when he was stoned to death in Somalia while working as a photojournalist. His mother later went through his journals and put selections from them together into this book.
What emerges is the image of a truly amazing person. Largely raised in Kenya, he spent the last few years of his life traveling to different corners of the globe. But he always returned to Africa, where he worked to relieve the suffering of people in several different countries, including Somalia.
The book has few words. Mostly it is Dan's photos, drawings, and mementos. You can see what an incredibly creative and talented soul he was. He lived so much in the short time that he had. I feel very sad for his family; how difficult it must have been to lose him so young. I felt that it was extremely courageous of mother to do the hard work to put together this book so that she could share her son with the world.
What emerges is the image of a truly amazing person. Largely raised in Kenya, he spent the last few years of his life traveling to different corners of the globe. But he always returned to Africa, where he worked to relieve the suffering of people in several different countries, including Somalia.
The book has few words. Mostly it is Dan's photos, drawings, and mementos. You can see what an incredibly creative and talented soul he was. He lived so much in the short time that he had. I feel very sad for his family; how difficult it must have been to lose him so young. I felt that it was extremely courageous of mother to do the hard work to put together this book so that she could share her son with the world.
August 30, 2007
I stumbled upon this book in a bookstore in Amherst with my friend, Danielle, and have kept it with me ever since. The book is a collection of journals by Reuters photojournalist Dan Eldon that his family published after his death (he was stoned by an angry mob in Somalia in 1993 after a U.S./U.N. bombing and violence in Mogadishu). It's a beautiful collection of work, a moving example of how art can communicate thoughtful reflection on what's going on in the world.
Here is the official website related to his work that includes other journals not included in the book (as early as 1982). I highly recommend that any teacher having students do journal writing use these as examples: http://www.daneldon.org/journals/inde...
Here is the official website related to his work that includes other journals not included in the book (as early as 1982). I highly recommend that any teacher having students do journal writing use these as examples: http://www.daneldon.org/journals/inde...
March 7, 2016
Dan Eldon was 22 years old when his young life came to a tragic end. He was a photographer for Reuters and well on his way to becoming a prominent war photographer but his legacy turned out to be a series of black-bound journals, where he let his artistic voice free.
These are not pages filled with store-bought mixed-media embellishments. Instead, the pages are full of everyday items that Dan pieced together to create unique storyboards of his life and those around him. By simply following his inner voice to create his art, he unknowingly started an art trend that has inspired thousands to unleash their inner thoughts onto paper.
Even if you are not into art journaling or mixed-media art, this a very inspiring book.
These are not pages filled with store-bought mixed-media embellishments. Instead, the pages are full of everyday items that Dan pieced together to create unique storyboards of his life and those around him. By simply following his inner voice to create his art, he unknowingly started an art trend that has inspired thousands to unleash their inner thoughts onto paper.
Even if you are not into art journaling or mixed-media art, this a very inspiring book.
April 30, 2010
This is an awesome sickbed diversion because most of the text (not too much longer than a feature article) is an introduction by his mother describing the author's brief life and what he attempted and accomplished by its end. The rest of the words are the haphazard notations, fairy tales and private thoughts of Dan Eldon. The book's majority is made up of compelling images spilling off its broad pages. Eldon communicates jokes, adventures, love stories and horror using a mash-up of matchbooks, menus, paint, photos, pen and scads more. A great dance for the eyes when visual upload, not literate, is all you want or can handle.
December 14, 2010
This book blew me away. Truly, I have never seen anything like it. Dan Eldon was a 23 year old reporter in Somalia when he, along with 3 of his colleagues, were attacked by an angry crowd and stoned to death. An uncommon and terrible end for someone who thrived on the edge and always sought adventure. This book is a compilation of pages from the many journals he kept over 7 or so years. Each page is a collage of photos, writing, drawings, smudges, coins, anything and everything, mixed up all together in incredible ways, and each page is a work of art. Incredible. I can only imagine what this guy would have done in life if he had lived longer.
September 13, 2012
I was introduced to Dan Eldon and his work through Invisible Children. Dan was a young photojournalist who captured some extremely intense images of life in Africa. His images of sunken faces and ghostly eyes of the impoverished serve as windows into the reality of life in many communities of Africa. Dan was deeply affected by all that he experienced in Africa and used his gift of photography to tell the world about it. Sadly, Dan's life was cut short by an angry mob in Mogadishu, Somalia where he was murdered. However, the title of the book 'The Journey is the Destination' is a wonderful description of the life that Dan lived.
February 12, 2008
You don't really read this book as much as soak it in. The recovered collage journals of Dan Eldon who was tragically killed by a mob in Somalia while photographing the aftermath of a bombing are stunning. You can see in each page of these journal entries that with Eldon's death the world lost a great humanitarian artist.
p.s. an evil person from a class i took in college asked to borrow this book from me and never returned it...even after my repeated asking for it. the bitch stole it and it will not be forgiven nor forgotten.
p.s. an evil person from a class i took in college asked to borrow this book from me and never returned it...even after my repeated asking for it. the bitch stole it and it will not be forgiven nor forgotten.
September 17, 2007
This was given to me as a gift from my friend Matt. These illustrated journals are incredible. It's clear that he was a gifted visual artist at a young age. The subjective renditions of his travels as illustrated in these journals are powerful. Perhaps they also acted as a counter balance to his job as a journalist that focused on more objective reporting? In any case, one can really get a taste of Africa from his journals. It's quite tragic that his life was so short lived, but it's clear he lived it to the fullest.
June 17, 2008
Collected illustrated journals from the travels of a precocious young man/journalist who was murdered during his last assignment.
Published posthumously by his family, these journals are a lush and multi-layered exploration of stream of consciousness collaging. They capture a place and time, a person, a feeling.
Messy and intricate, shot through with diary entries, it's a book bursting at the seams with ideas and frozen moments.
An intricate and amazing visual read, at times troubling, confessional, smart, morbid and self-consciously funny.
Published posthumously by his family, these journals are a lush and multi-layered exploration of stream of consciousness collaging. They capture a place and time, a person, a feeling.
Messy and intricate, shot through with diary entries, it's a book bursting at the seams with ideas and frozen moments.
An intricate and amazing visual read, at times troubling, confessional, smart, morbid and self-consciously funny.
March 20, 2010
I was interning at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art when the original Dan Eldon journal arrived. I was lucky enough to handle it personally. It is a really fascinating "book.". As an artist and Design teacher, there is so much to explore in the design, order, and flow of the book. You can't just read the book, it forces you to interact with it in an unusual way. Of course you also experience events in time with the author as you move through the book. It always made me wonder about how he spent his time (ok, I guess we can SEE that) and what he would have been like to talk to.
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