Tim Page

"This photo was taken on about the 4th day of the second Tet Offensive, that was in May of 1968. Things got really bad, so they brought American troops in the 9th Division from the Northern delta of Vietnam to try to contain the fighting. The North Vietnamese had infiltrated the southern suburbs of the city.

Most of these dudes were draftees, so they didn't really fucking care about the war I guess. You know what I mean? They just wanted to survive their year and get out. I mean who knows who wrote hippie on the hat? It's one of those things you see and say 'oh, that's a great picture. I better take more of that.' I never thought more about it until l was doing my book back in 1981, and somebody said, 'have you seen this picture? Look at the detail!' It's one of those images I wouldn't have thrown in the bin, but that I just would have missed it. I saw it at the time, I shot it, but it didn't register at the time as a big deal, you know what I'm saying, it was only discovered years later. And...it wasn't a very good day, that was a week that we lost  9 people. 9 correspondents were killed in one week. The fighting went on in the streets for about 9 days. It wasn't a good time, but then immediately after that the war just stopped and everybody kinda took a breather. At that point armored vehicles and tanks that were going through the suburbs. I'm trying to think of a suburb to compare it to...it was like Watts back before it burned down in the late 60s. I a lot of 1 and 2 story buildings and shop fronts. Then suddenly it didn't exist because you put an armored battalion through the place with air support, then bye bye suburb.  It was just a total fucking rubble after they went through there. That area now you an go through it and it's all fancy studios and flats. It's tarted up. Back then it right on the edges of the city. It was the first built up suburb." - Tim Page

Tim Page left England at 17 to travel across Europe, the Middle East and to India and Nepal. He found himself in Laos at the time of the civil war and ended up working as a stringer for United Press International. From there he moved on to Saigon where he covered the Vietnam War for the next five years working largely on assignment for TIME-LIFE, UPI, PARIS MATCH and ASSOCIATED PRESS. He also found time to cover the Six Day War in the Middle East in 1967. The role of war-photographer suited Page’s craving for danger and excitement. He became an iconic photographer of the Vietnam War and his pictures were the visual inspiration for many films of the period. The photojournalist in ‘Apocalypse Now’, played by Dennis Hopper was based on Page.

The Vietnam War was the first and last war where there was no censorship, the military actively encouraged press involvement and Page went everywhere, covering everything. He was wounded four times, once by ‘friendly fire’ and the last time was when he jumped out of a helicopter to help load the wounded and the person in front of him stepped on a landmine. He was pronounced DOA at the hospital. He required extensive neuro-surgery and spent most of the seventies in recovery.

It was while he was recovering in hospital in spring 1970 that he learnt that his best friend, house mate and fellow photographer Sean Flynn, son of Hollywood actor Errol, had gone missing in Cambodia. Throughout the 70’s and 80’s Page’s mission was to discover the fate and final resting place of his friend and to erect a memorial to all those in the media that were either killed or went missing in the war. This led him to found the IndoChina Media Memorial Foundation and was the genesis for the book ‘REQUIEM’. With his friend Horst Faas, photo editor for Associated Press and double Pulitzer Prize winner, they co-edited the book and commemorated the work of all the dead and the missing, from all nations, who were lost in the thirty-year struggle for liberation. REQUIEM the exhibition is now on permanent display at the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City.

Tim Page is the subject of many documentaries, two films and the author of ten books. He spent 5 months in 2009 as the Photographic Peace Ambassador for the UN in Afghanistan and is the recipient of many awards. He was recently named one of the '100 Most Influential Photographers Of All Time'. His interest and passion now is covering the aftermath of war and bringing the world’s attention to the plight of the innocent victims – the bystanders. He returns regularly to Viet Nam and Cambodia to run photo workshops, do assignments and to photograph the mines - and the maimed that are still being injured 30 years on and the still, devastating effects of Agent Orange. Since arriving in Australia Tim has also covered East Timor and The Solomon Islands. He now lives in Brisbane and is an adjunct professor at Griffith University.