Tim Page

I was taking a break from the war and I had arrived in New York just as the anti-war movement surged across the nation. An assignment for Life found me heading for New Haven, Connecticut with writer Fred Powledge who was "in-sighting" the current psychedelically edged music through the eyes of his teen daughter for the magazine.

On arrival we saw a squad of New Haven's finest sentries posted to prevent their daughters from groping the man in the taut black. Pre-concert Jim was supposedly caught receiving oral sex in his dressing room, the police overreacted and maced Morrison backstage just before he went on. When he came out onstage he was charged with what the Vietnamese would call 'revolutionary zeal.'

The police surged onstage as the power was cut. Morrison had enough power left to parry the mic at Lt. Kelly's face with a 'say your thing man' before the whole hot moment was stunned briefly into ill-lit silence.  As the cops dragged the protesting performer off stage, a riot erupted. Five thousand erstwhile peaceful fans went ballistic. I danced about with my camera shooting the punch out. An officer grabbed me and began beating me and told me to move on. I protested to the Lieutenant in charger. Instant arrest. I was shoved into a squad car back seat. An hour of cruising and collecting knife-flicking drunks, we arrived at the New Haven central tank in time to share central holding with the star himself. We presented a motley spectrum for the night's catch. It was only then that they wanted my cameras, shoelaces and all the other good stuff to prevent me from suiciding.

Jim Morrison was recently exonerated from his crime in New Haven. As for me, I am still a wanted man in Connecticut, having skipped the $350 bail Life deducted from my fees. though the magazine ran the story with give pages of black and white photos they promptly lost the negatives." -  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.