Dan Eldon

src: publishingperspectives.com

Daniel Robert " And " Eldon (September 18, 1970 - July 12, 1993) is a British-Kenyan photographer, artist and activist, who was killed in Somalia while working as a Reuters photojournalist. He left behind a series of journals, which have been used by Chronicle Books to publish four books, "The Journey is the Destination", "And Eldon, Art of Life", "Safari as a Way of Life" and "The Journey is Purpose, Artist Journal."

Video Dan Eldon

Kehidupan awal

Eldon was born in London, on September 18, 1970, son of Kathy and Mike Eldon. Mike is an Israeli citizen born of Jewish descent, and his American mother is a Protestant descendant of German and Irish immigrants. When Dan was seven years old, Eldon and his three-year-old brother, Amy moved to Nairobi, Kenya with their parents. The couple then divorced; Mike Eldon is now married to a Kenyan woman, Evelyn Mungai (Transparency International, Kenya) Kathy is now married to American designer Michael Bedner.

In Kenya, Dan Eldon studied at a British school, but soon convinced his parents to transfer him to the Kenya International School, which included children representing more than 40 nationalities. In 1982, coup attempts in Kenya put families in the middle of political upheaval. Eldon, age 12, arrived back in Kenya from a summer vacation a few days after the coup and suffered some consequences. In his teenage years, Eldon joined his mother, Kathy, a hand-held journalist for the English-language Nation newspaper in Kenya. Immediately Eldon took a photo, which was featured in local newspapers and magazines.

At the age of fourteen, Eldon started a fundraising campaign for open heart surgery to save Atieno's life, a young Kenyan girl. Together with his sister and friends, he raised $ 5,000 for a successful heart surgery. At the age of 15, Eldon helps support the Maasai family by purchasing handmade beaded jewelry made by mother, Kipenget, then selling it to friends and friends. It was then that Dan began to create a journal full of collages, photographs and drawings. He often uses satire and cartoon as a comment. He kept the journals as personal statements, which he shared only with a few people.

In 1988, Dan graduated from Kenya International School, won the award of International Relations and Public Service. Elected as the most prominent student, he spoke to his class, emphasizing the importance of crossing cultural barriers and caring for others.

Maps Dan Eldon

Travel

Throughout his life, Eldon traveled extensively, visiting 46 countries. In addition, he studied seven languages â€‹â€‹both inside and outside school.

In the fall of 1988, Eldon started a "holiday" before college. He calls it "year of the year"; for him, it felt more challenging than college. He left Kenya for a job at the Mademoiselle magazine in New York.

In January, Eldon enrolled at Pasadena City College in Pasadena, California. That summer, he and a friend examined a journey that would lead Eldon and a group of young people from Nairobi to Malawi, driving a Land Rover across five countries. They found that living in a local prison was the safest solution to the security problem, and often spent the night in a jail cell to entertain the prison guards.

With the information he gets on his way, Eldon, who has moved to UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles), founded a charity called Student Transport Aid. This attracted the interest of local television stations and TV newspapers. With the help of fifteen friends, he raised $ 25,000 to venture into a refugee camp in Malawi. Friends, representing six countries, met in Nairobi and traveled thousands of miles in three vehicles. There, they donated one of their vehicles to the Save the Children Fund, as well as money for three wells, and blankets for the children's hospital. Team members include Christopher Nolan, (director of "Batman"), Roko Belic (Oscar-nominated Director "Genghis Blues"), Elinor Tatum, (Publisher of Amsterdam News), Amy Eldon Turteltaub (Producer and Writer), Jeffrey Gettleman (Pulitzer-Prize) Head of the New York Times Bureau for East Asia.)

Eldon returned to UCLA in the fall of 1990 and began planning another venture, which required a move to London in January. He attended Richmond College and in the meantime, bought another Land Rover for a trip to Morocco that summer. He aims to buy bracelets and belts for sale in America for Student Transport Aid. He was attacked by a Moroccan thief and was delayed by Land Rover damage. He spent his summer in Marrakech, before arriving home in time to send $ 5,000 worth of goods to America, which he sold on the coast of Southern California.

In 1991, he returned to UCLA for an academic year, all the time planning his next trip, which would cross the Sahara. Beginning in 1992, he moved to Mt. Vernon, Iowa, to attend classes at Cornell College.

src: www.daneldoncollection.com

Movie careers

In April of that year, Eldon flew to Kenya, where he became the third director assistant in a big screen film, Lost in Africa. As the most junior person in the production crew, he often wakes up at 5:00 am, and usually the last one in bed.

During the summer of 1992, famine in Somalia went berserk. Eldon flies to a Kenyan refugee camp. The international news agency, Reuters, saw his work, and he soon worked for the company, firing on an increasingly desperate situation. He followed his story closely and attended the US Navy landing, where a barrage of international photographers and journalists were waiting for American soldiers as they left the landing craft in Mogadishu.

Eldon remains in Mogadishu through the spring. During this time, Eldon pictures are featured in newspapers and magazines around the world. On June 12, 1993, his photograph made a two-page spread on Newsweek magazine, as well as the cover of newspapers everywhere. Meanwhile, Pakistani peacekeepers died, causing the conflict to become a violent international incident, violence and horror at Eldon. He was nicknamed Warsame, Mayor of Mogadishu by Mogadishans because of his hospitality.

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Death

Despite being "enough" in June, Eldon stayed behind to cover the event. On July 12, 1993, he, AP photographer Hansi Krauss, [Reuters voice [Anthony Macharia]] and Reuters videographer Hos Maina covered the UN attack to capture the Aidid clan leader in a house he believed to have occupied. Victims of raids went to hotel reporters asking them to take pictures. In the convoy, under the protection of Somalis, Eldon and a group of colleagues went to the bombed area. When they started taking photos, a mob attacked the journalists. Eldon and his colleagues Krauss, Macharia and Maina were stoned and beaten to death.

src: www.daneldon.org

Movie adaptation

It was announced in the New York Times on December 28, 2007, that Eldon will be the focus of the biopic film titled The Journey Is the Destination. The title is based on the pages of Dan's journal shown in "The Journey is the Destination," published by Chronicle Books. The film was produced by Martin Katz, Kathy Eldon, Richard Arlook and Kweku Mandela and was shot in South Africa from July to September 2014. The film premiered in 2016 at the Toronto Film Festival in November 2015, and was released on Netflix in October, 2017.

src: mikaelalong.files.wordpress.com

References