Photojournalist who took photographs of the suffering in Palestine: Who is Keith Dannemiller?

Keith Dannemiller is one of those who witnessed Israel's systematic violence and policy of destruction against Palestinians. American photojournalist Keith Dannemiller entered hospitals, prisons, and refugee camps in many cities of Palestine during the first Intifada and immortalized the manifestation of the resistance on the streets with his camera.

FRAMING REBELLION, ANGER, AND PAIN

When the First Intifada broke out in December 1987, Keith Dannemiller, who worked as a photojournalist at the Imagenlatina Photo Agency in Mexico, says he was surprised when the agency manager called him to go to Palestine. He sets out to this country, which he didn't know much about before, with reams of black and white films and, in his own words, his "excitement and immaturity". Dannemiller, who was stunned by the violence he witnessed, explains in the foreword of the book what the photographs he took mean to him with the following sentences: “Framing rebellion, anger, and pain with the camera had great meaning for me beyond the images you see here. Taking photographs in Gaza, Jerusalem, and the West Bank during the First Intifada helped me keep my body and soul together. In those days, I understood what photography expected from me. Taking photographs was not limited to transforming reality from three dimensions into two dimensions and placing the result in a frame. “It was a personal decision to be made, embracing the four dimensions and using all five senses.”

Keith Dannemiller, who witnessed Israeli soldiers raiding high schools and arresting girls, beating children on the street without any justification, maiming adult men with bone-breaking operations, opening fire on civilians, demolishing houses with bulldozers, attacking refugee camps, and many other shades of violence, is only black. He explains why he took white photographs by saying that there was no room for color in Palestine in those days.

MEETING THE HERO OF THE ICONIC PHOTOGRAPHY

The artist tells the story of how he took the iconic photo of the boy throwing stones and how he met that little boy years later:

“Children should play with their friends on the streets and chase the ball. Or he should help with the housework and study. One should not throw stones at heavily armed soldiers who are ready to open fire at the slightest provocation. "When I arrived at the Al-Amari Refugee Camp in Ramallah on February 1, 1988, to photograph the rapidly growing Intifada events, I found small children with stones in their hands."

Tarık Jabarin, a Palestinian musician studying in France, recognizes the boy in the photo, whose name he had not known for years, on the cover of the book in a bookstore in Paris and contacts Keith Dannemiller. Dannemiller expresses his surprise at the message he received with the following sentences: “I couldn't believe it. Someone I photographed a quarter of a century ago was recognized by a random reader in Paris: such an event could only happen in a historical novel or a movie scene. Within a month, I sent Tarik a digital copy of this photo I took a long time ago so he could print it. He told me that the brave young man in the photo is now the principal of the Al Kamandjati School of Music in Ramallah and is also a violinist. He also wrote Remzi Abu Ridvan's e-mail address in his e-mail.

So, we started corresponding with Remzi, and a friendship developed between us… I see it as a circle containing many elements that connect and intersect with each other.”

* Q) Today, many news agencies in the heart of Europe ignore the genocide taking place in Palestine. When they sent you to Palestine in 1988, was your agency in Mexico interested in Palestine's problems?

Answer) The agency I am affiliated with, Imagenlatina, was interested. Apart from these, there was very little information about what was actually happening in Palestine and the events of the First Intifada. News of the intifada was coming through major Western news agencies (AP, Reuters, AFP (Agence France Press) etc.), so there was a dearth of information on the ground. I think that was one reason why Imagenlatina wanted to tell me what was going on there and sent me.