Last nightI sat through an HBO movie on SKY…’HEMMINGWAY & GELLHORN’. Not a brilliant film, but the story of these 2 people was quite interesting. Many know Hemmingway & his life, but some not.

This was set during the time he was hanging out & then married Martha Gellhorn. So movie starts some where they meet in Key West & then ends up in Madrid during the Spanish Civil War. There amongst the crowd of people in the Hotel & Bar is Robert Capa, & film maker Joris Ivens.

Now I have to be honest…never heard of Martha Gellhorn, & I am quite embarrassed about not knowing as she is someone I want to know more about…a female war correspondent back in those days…amazing & all the shit she covered, Spain, Finland, China & WW2.

But where am I going here…well stick with me people. I keep talking about heroes & the people who make a stand for what they believe in. This bunch of people captured a time in history very similar to the shit that is going on right now. But I see that there was less censorship you were told how it is, & throw in the images of Capa you saw it all too.

In the case of Hemmingway, here is someone who used his celebrity, voice & pure machismo to go out there & make a change. I mean this man got his fucking hands dirty, he lived & breathed revolution for the right cause…or well that’s what we see & believe…I am sure there are alternate stories in the public domain…he wasn’t all good. But he lived by his rules.

Now Gellhorn seemed to be a Journalist with a passion & to tell the story of the everyday people, as she said in the film to Capa, ‘ I want to write how your pictures look ‘ & Capa is a fucking legend. But she went where it was bleakest & told the tale of how & what. She lived what she believed…all of these people did.

Made me question where are their contemporaries…they are out there in the front line somewhere, like my friend Dave Gough who reported for the Independent on the Rebels in Somalia, Ethiopia & Kenya. He lived with them & he lived it…just like Capa & Gellhorn. But I know these people exist, the silent heroes that get censored by the press & governments…big Business…I mean look at the NEWS in the US…its fucking useless, you don’t know shit about the outside world & even the domestic news is total shite !!!

I question my own conditioning, as there was a time when I wanted to be a Photo Journalist…in the thick of it…ok I was 17/18 & had seen UNDER FIRE, based in Nicaragua & then a couple of years later SALVADOR, & I thought that is the Photography I want to do, Life…tell a story of Humanity & Struggle. What happened to me, what happens to that impetus within ourselves to make us not stand up & speak out.

Fear…is it only Fear…what is it that made all these people before us get up & do something about.

I speak out all the time, but to who really…a few people who read my blog, & friends who have time to listen to the rants of a mad man from the comfort of his couch. As I type I feel the urge to do something…but I don’t…I do this, I type…I vent. Is it me stroking my ego as to what I know, & look at me, I know what’s going on…I am just part of the Problem, not Doing…to make a change. Its is the sense of potential loss of what we have & what we need that holds us back too…& yeah Guilty…my heroes pushed beyond that & stood up.

Imagine if we all acted on our feelings towards our fellow human beings, what we could do.

Our society right now is so messed up…we live in a world lead by consumerism & as Jodorwoski called, ‘This paper, this shit’ …Money…yeah we all need it, it is the oil that greases the machine & keeps it rolling. If we can all see money as a tool rather than a sense of status we might start being a bit better off. But yeah consumerism & big business will be fucking with us all. Retail therapy is good, we all get a kick out of it….but there is more to this.

We haven't moved forward much since the time of Hemmingway, Gellhorn & Capa.

I would like to make an effort to start doing some more…what I don’t even know yet. & here I am typing thinking of all the things I would have to let go of to do what I want…that is the Status…but we do need a change of consciousness…I know profound right.

So let me say this is a work in Progress.

Thanks for reading.

Be well.

WHERE'S HEMMINGWAY, GELLHORN & CAPA ?