New Book Released - COLOMBIA: Between the Lines

I met recently with the screen writer to discuss which elements of the story about my time in Colombia and the relationship with the female assassin will bear some simplification for the mass audience and which points I feel are crucial to telling the story properly.

The movie concept, which they see as being a kind of SALVADOR/The Year of Living Dangerously set in Colombia was pitched at the Canne film festival a few weeks back and we are waiting to see if any of the major studios have or will option it. Then another whole long process will begin.

In the meantime the movie agent in LA who I signed to deal with the initial flood of inquiries about the story has hooked me up with a literary agent in NYC who is working on securing me an decent advance so that I can take 6 months off from shooting to go and ‘write’ the story as a book as opposed to the small amount of text that is included as back ground notes in ‘Between the Lines’. It will be quite a challenge but I look forward to getting going on it.

I will keep you up to date.

JPH

Your book just arived in the mail today and it looks amazing.

Thanks.

Srini

The photographers journey described in the notes throughout the book will hopefully be of interest too since it answers many of the questions that come up on LS almost every week such as how to get started in this business, how important the equipment is and how to actually make contacts in the field and work in a conflict zone, Colombia was where I went to learn instead of studying formally. The results of my first trip there got me invited into an agency and an award in that years POYi, since then I have rarely been out of work, a few quiet times but basically on the road for the last 7 years covering the conflicts in Colombia, Iraq, Lebanon and Afghanistan where I am now based with many assignments in other areas of the world too.

I am hoping that folks will find the story an encouraging one and realize that in some cases formal education and lots of equipment will get you nowhere.
Sometimes something else is required, I arrived in Baghdad in December 2003 with $1000 and a borrowed camera and was pretty worried about how I was going to survive and eventually get home again. I needn’t have worried over the next year I had 209 days worth of assignments including 90 days for the New York Times.

It doesn’t matter where you studied and what camera you have if you are not there you won’t get the work.
If anyone would like to see some work from the countries mentioned above please fell free to visit my website www.conflictpics.com .

The article you mention Preston first appeared in Arena in the UK and then the Independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/i-fell-in-love-with-a-female-assassin-791978.html
Since it has been published in France, Spain, Italy, Australia, Mexico, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, South Africa, Norway, Thailand, Turkey, Korea, Singapore and Colombia. All these sales were generated purely by word of mouth as I have not even started to market the package yet. Men’s Journal in the US will run my story as told to their own correspondent in an interview in the September issue.

As a result of this one article I was able to raise the funds to print the Colombia book myself with no outside interference from anyone and without having to be beholden to an investor or grant giver.

The magazine Arena who originally published the piece have now asked me to produce 6-8 photo and text packages per year for them on subjects that interest me. This is an amazing opportunity for which I am very grateful.

The fact that someone has approached me with the idea of making a movie about my journey is hugely flattering and I hope the story of my beginnings stacking shelves in supermarkets at night to buy a plane ticket and all the up’s and downs of life as a freelance will help to inspire others to give it a go, it is a wonderful, exciting and satisfying life. The good times really do make up for all the tough periods when we go hungry and don’t know where we will find the motivation to go on. As long as we always find it somewhere that’s all that matters.

Thank you again for your emails/PM’s and messages of support it really means a lot.

Jason.