Stanley Greene: Black Passport

by Teun van der Heijden, Stanley Greene (Photographer)

The archetype of the war correspondent is freighted with an outsize heroic mythos to which world-renowned conflict photographer Stanley Greene is no stranger. Black Passport is his autobiographical monograph-cum-scrapbook, and it transports the viewer behind the news as Greene reflects upon his career, oscillating between the relative safety of life in the West and the traumas of wars abroad. This glimpse of the polarities that have comprised Greene's life raises essential questions about the role of the photojournalist, as well as concerns about its what motivates someone to willingly confront death and misery? To do work that risks one's life? Is it political engagement, or a sense of commitment to telling difficult stories? Or does being a war photographer simply satisfy a yearning for adventure? Black Passport offers an experience that is both exceptionally personal and ostensibly objective. Built around Greene's narrating monologue, the book's 26 short, nonsequential “scenes” are each illustrated by a portfolio of his work.

Genres: Photography

288 pages, Paperback

First published March 31, 2010

Reviews

[Dmitry Berkut · Rating 5 out of 5]

Black Passport is one of my favorite books on photojournalism.
A powerful, captivating book by Stanley Green, resembling a personal diary where the author's everyday life and candid experiences are intertwined with the extreme experiences of a war photographer who has been through conflict zones on several continents.
The book is perfect both internally and externally.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very much in the tradition of Bill Burke and early Ed Grazda, war photography as a biographical journey.

[Charles Dee Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Early on in the writing that accompanies Greene's photographs, he seems to be taking the traditional view of the war photographer who must repeatedly leave his wife or girlfriend behind to do what he must do. As the book progresses, and especially after two "flashback" sequences to San Francisco in the 1970's, Greene's meditations on his job and the situations he puts himself in become more thoughtful. By the final section he is the old pro observing, with considerable discernment and some dismay, the new breed of photographers that will be taking his place. Black Passport is a good overview of an important career.