Mid-Term Report

by Tim Page

Few contemporary photographers can have been so widely celebrated as Tim Page. Everything he has done since throwing himself into the Indo-China and Vietnam of the 1960s - the deep end of the pool of life - has exhibited a brilliantly idiosyncratic character all of its own. His experience of the war, mythologized a quarter of a century later in the 4-part television series Frankie's House, was the crisis and centre of his life. It not only revealed an extraordinary talent with the camera, but also gave him an insight and a compassion brought to bear on an enormous range of other subjects in the decades that followed the Six Day War, 1970s California sub-cultures, Castro's Cuba, the spiritual peace of Buddhism and coming home to the UK, offering a diffusion of moods and experiences.

111 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1995

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Tim Page (25 May 1944 – 24 August 2022) was an English photographer who made his name during the Vietnam War and based in Brisbane, Australia.

Page was a photojournalist in Sth East Asia and was injured in action four times, from 1967 to 1969.

During Page's recovery, back in the US, in the spring of 1970 he learnt of the capture of his best friend, roommate and fellow photo-journalist Sean Flynn in Cambodia. Throughout the 1970s and 80s he tried to discover Flynn's fate and final resting place and wanted to erect a memorial to all those in the media who either were killed or went missing in the Vietnam wars. This led him to found the Indochina Media Memorial Foundation and was the genesis for the book Requiem, co-edited with fellow Vietnam War photographer Horst Faas. Page's quest to clear up the mystery of Flynn's fate continued; as late as 2009 he was back in Cambodia, still searching for the site of Flynn's remains.

Page's book Requiem contains photographs taken by all of the photographers and journalists killed during the Vietnamese wars against the Japanese, French and Americans. Requiem has become since early 2000 a traveling photographic exhibition placed under the custody of the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film. The exhibition has been presented in Vietnam's War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, as well as in New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Tokyo, Hanoi, Lausanne, and London. In 2011, it was selected to be the main exhibition of the Month of Photography Asia in Singapore.

Page is the subject of many documentaries and two films, and is the author of many books. He lived in Brisbane, Australia and no longer covers wars. He was Adjunct Professor of Photojournalism at Griffith University. - Wikipedia

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is really a book about PTSD. Page describes how going through trauma can become so self-defining that the rest of your life seems fake, you are left with massive imposter syndrome. Not surprisingly photography became the way in which Page could find himself again, a lifeline back to some kind of normalcy after years of living with the trauma of war. Tim Page was my childhood hero, my inspiration. Not only was he a great photographer but his honesty in this book speaks to anyone who has experienced trauma and says a lot about Page as a great, empathetic human being. RIP Tim Page X.