Dan Eldon
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Dan Eldon | |
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Born | Daniel Robert Eldon 18 September 1970 Hampstead, London, England, UK |
Died | 12 July 1993 Mogadishu, Somalia | (aged 22)
Cause of death | Beating |
Occupation(s) | Journalist, artist, activist |
Daniel Robert Eldon (18 September 1970 – 12 July 1993) was a British-Kenyan photojournalist, artist and activist killed in Somalia while working as a Reuters photojournalist. His journals were published posthumously in four volumes by Chronicle Books, including The Journey Is the Destination, The Art of Life, and Safari as a Way of Life.
Early life
Eldon was born in London on 18 September 1970, the son of Kathy and Mike Eldon. His father was an Israel-born British citizen of Jewish descent, and his mother was an American Protestant of German and Irish descent.[1][2] He had one younger sister, Amy. When Eldon was seven years old, his family moved to Nairobi, Kenya. His parents later divorced.
In Kenya, Eldon initially attended a British school, before transferring to the
At 14, with his sister and friends, Eldon raised $5,000 in a fundraising campaign for a young Kenyan girl, Atieno, to have heart surgery. At 15, Eldon sold handmade beaded jewelry made by a Maasai family to students and friends to support them. Around this time Eldon began creating personal journals filled with collages, photographs, and drawings, often using satire and cartoons as commentary.
In 1988, Eldon graduated from the International School of Kenya, winning the International Relations and Community Service awards. He was voted most outstanding student; he addressed his class on the importance of crossing cultural barriers and caring for others.[3]
Travel and studies
Eldon travelled extensively, visiting 46 countries, and studied seven languages.
In the autumn of 1988, Eldon left Kenya for a job at Mademoiselle magazine in New York before going to college.
In January 1989, Eldon enrolled in Pasadena City College in California. That summer he and a friend researched a journey from Nairobi to Malawi, driving a Land Rover across five countries.[4] They often used local jails as accommodation while on the trip.
After this trip and having transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles, Eldon set up a charity named Student Transport Aid, which raised $25,000 for a trip from a Nairobi to a refugee camp in Malawi 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 a children's hospital. Team members included Christopher Nolan, Roko Belic, Elinor Tatum, Jeffrey Gettleman, and Eldon's sister Amy.
Eldon returned to UCLA in the autumn of 1990 and began to plan another venture, which required moving to London in January. While attending
In 1991, he returned to UCLA for one academic year, planning his next trip across the Sahara. Early in 1992, he moved to Mount Vernon, Iowa, to attend classes at Cornell College.
In April 1992, Eldon flew to Kenya, where he was a third assistant director on the film Lost in Africa.[5]
Work in Somalia and Bloody Monday
In the summer of 1992, during the famine in Somalia, Eldon flew to the Kenyan refugee camps. He began taking photographs for Reuters and was among the international photographers and journalists present at the US Marine landing in Mogadishu. Eldon stayed in Mogadishu through to the next spring, during which time his pictures were featured in newspapers and magazines around the world. On 12 June 1993, his photo was featured as a double page spread in Newsweek magazine.
Bloody Monday
On 12 July 1993, an event occurred known to the Somalis as
Survivors of the raid went to the journalists' hotel requesting them to take pictures. In a convoy, under the protection of Somalis, Eldon and a group of colleagues went to the bombed area. Some witnesses and former US officials later stated that the raid accidentally hit a meeting of clan elders who were hoping to pressure Aidid into peace, a claim denied by the US Army.[9]
As they began to take photographs, Eldon, Krauss, Macharia and Maina were attacked by a
Film adaptation
It was announced in The New York Times on 28 December 2007 that Eldon would be the subject of a biographical film, The Journey Is the Destination, the title of which was taken from a page of his journals that was released under the same name by Chronicle Books. The film was directed by Bronwen Hughes and produced by Martin Katz, Kathy Eldon, Richard Arlook and Kweku Mandela, and was shot in South Africa from July to September 2014. The film, starring Ben Schnetzer, Kelly Macdonald, and Maria Bello,[10] premiered in 2016 at the Toronto Film Festival and was released on Netflix in October 2017.
References
- ^ "Young photographer exposed Somalia's horrors". CNN.
- ^ "Dan & Amy Eldon". The MY HERO Project. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
- ^ New, Jennifer: "Dan Eldon: The Art of Life", page 74. Creative Visions, 2001.
- ^ New, Jennifer. "Dan Eldon: The Art of Life", page 147. Creative Visions, 2001.
- ^ New, Jennifer. "Dan Eldon: The Art of Life", page 198. Creative Visions, 2001.
- ^ Anthony Macharia
- ^ Hos Maina
- ^ Smith, David (30 December 2007). "Wizard to play the magician of Somalia". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 30 April 2010.
- ^ a b Megas, Natalia (6 January 2019). "Did the U.S. Cover Up a Civilian Massacre Before Black Hawk Down?". The Daily Beast.
- ^ ""The Journey is the Destination (2016)", Internet Movie Database". IMDb.
Books
- Eldon, Dan (1997). Kathy Eldon (ed.). The Journey is the Destination. ISBN 0-8118-1586-2.
- New, Jennifer (2001). Dan Eldon: The Art of Life. ISBN 0-8118-2955-3.
- New, Jennifer (12 October 2011). Safari As A Way of Life. ISBN 978-1-4521-0207-8.
External links
- Dan Eldon: Artist, Activist, Adventurer Official website