The life and death, at age 22, of photojournalist Dan Eldon has impacted many throughout the world. An exhibition and tribute to Eldon can be seen at Santa Monica College through March 21.
By Olivia Damavandi / Staff Writer
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the story behind it is priceless-and sometimes lethal. The work and tragic death of Dan Eldon, a young photojournalist killed in Somalia during the summer of 1993, has exposed worldwide the grim reality of the perilous conditions photojournalists must sometimes face to capture even one photo.
“JOURNEY: Images of War/Celebrations of Peace,” an exhibition and tribute to Eldon at Santa Monica College, features his travel journals and images of war and peace to raise awareness about critical social, environmental and humanitarian issues impacting the world today.
Numerous luminaries collect and admire Eldon’s work, including the late Heath Ledger, Malibu resident and actress Julia Roberts and actor Daniel Radcliffe (“Harry Potter”). Roberts will play the role of Eldon’s mother Kathleen and Radcliffe will play Eldon in a film about his life to be released next year.
At the young age of 22 while on location covering the Somali conflict for news organization Reuters, Eldon was asked by Somali locals to photograph the carnage and destruction allegedly caused by U.N. Peacekeeping Forces’ mistaken bombing of what it believed to be the house of a warlord. On his way there, as he rushed through the streets of Mogadishu, Eldon and three other photojournalists were stoned to death by an infuriated mob.
The brutality of the deaths made news headlines worldwide and prompted numerous international exhibitions of Eldon’s war photography. “JOURNEY” has toured six countries and its openings have been attended by more than four heads of state, including the President of Kenya, former President of Ireland and the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson. Journalist Dan Rather opened the exhibition at Columbia University, and Tom Brokaw spoke during its opening at Duke University.
Born in London, Eldon moved to Kenya with his family at the age of four. Upon his discovery at an early age that the country offered no social services, he dedicated much of his time to helping anyone in need.
When he was 16, Eldon and his sister Amy, three years his senior, helped to raise money to fund a Kenyan girl’s heart surgery; when he was 19 and attending Pasadena Community College, Eldon organized, developed and raised $17,000 for Student Transport Aid, an organization that delivered aid to a refugee camp in Malawi. At 21, he became one of the first and youngest photojournalists to cover the famine in Somalia and raised worldwide awareness of the catastrophe through his photographs, which were picked up by Reuters.
“When he shifted his focus to Somalia, he created awareness of the entire country,” his sister Amy, a Malibu resident, said in an interview last week. “But all this started with helping just one person. So his violent death undermined my belief in humanity.”
Eldon’s friends and family, in his native Kenya and in Los Angeles, mourned while surrounded by constant reminders of his death.
“The message of his upbringing was to live the life of his dreams,” his mother Kathleen, also a Malibu resident, said in an interview last week. “That was our last conversation before he died.
“Having encouraged him to be compassionate and caring about others,” which contributed to Eldon’s willingness to put himself in life-threatening circumstances to expose the verities of war, had given Kathleen a sense of guilt, she said.
“In order to survive, I had to transform my grief into something positive,” she explained.
That “something positive” in 1997 manifested itself into 200,000 copies of “The Journey is the Destination,” a book composed of photographs, collages, drawings, weathered maps, stamps, comic book heroes and newspaper clippings from Eldon’s journal reflecting his upbringing in Kenya and young adult life in New York and Somalia. Shortly thereafter, a permanent art exhibition named after the book was featured at Candela/Decker gallery in New York City, where it remains to this day.
Next, Amy Eldon filmed the documentary “Dying to Tell the Story,” in which she traveled to the scene of her brother’s death in Mogadishu and interviewed journalists who had worked with him to “stare down the darkness” she was facing.
Amy and Kathleen then founded Creative Visions Foundation, an organization that helps support activists “who use media, the arts and technology to inform, inspire and empower others.”
Though the news of her brother’s death initially enraged her, Amy said she followed the example set by her parents, who immediately transmuted the rage into a catalyst for change.
“You can either continue that cycled nature of revenge or you can direct your energy toward making sure that other people don’t have to go through the same thing,” Amy said. “Dan was killed as a result of ignorance, so my job [is to] break down barriers and cultural divides that led to his death.
“I believe young people are the solution,” she continued. “In this increasingly crazy world, we have to teach kids to take a stand, speak out and make the change. And as the world grows darker we all have to shine a little brighter.”
Though 16 years have passed since he died, Eldon’s legacy lives on through the many people he has touched and inspired with his short life.
“What he did was he saw people’s potential,” Kathleen said. “When he was killed, a lot of the people he met along the way were devastated because Dan inspired them to be more than what they thought they could be. He inspired people to be true to themselves,” she continued. “He was a really ordinary guy with an extraordinary view of the world.”
“JOURNEY: Images of War/Celebrations of Peace” runs until March 21 at the Pete & Susan Barrett Art Gallery at Santa Monica College. More information can be obtained by calling 310.434.3434 or by visiting www.creativevisions.org