First trip to the Middle East

Hello,

After a lot of searching around and research I’ve found this site. I’m soon to be graduating from college, and at the death in the past year of Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros, who I had connections to, and Anthony Shadid, who was an alum of my school and like family, I’ve started to yearn to finally go to the Middle East.

My goal is to just… go. I want to get to somewhere different. I’m a photojournalist out of Wisconsin, USA, and I speak Arabic at a level where I would be able to function fine.

The question is, where should I go? What should I be thinking of as I plan? What should I be packing?

I want to just go somewhere and photograph a story that develops before me. I would some day like to be a war corespondent but first I want to get my feet wet in the middle east for a month and a half to two months. Right now my mind is floating either toward North Africa or Jordan and following Bedouin life there.

Would anyone be able to take some time and reason out some ideas with me or give any basic pointers?

by Mark Kauzlarich at 2012-02-22 08:31:28 UTC | Bookmark | | Report spam→

You can learn journalism in the field. Syrian border with Turkey can be an option for you. There are around 8000 refugees here and also a lot of Material for journalists here.

Memet

by Memet Aksakal | 22 Feb 2012 15:02 | Hatay Antakya, Turkey | | Report spam→

Thanks for your suggestion. The journalism issue isn’t really an issue. I feel confident in my journalism abilities. I just wanted to go somewhere without a subject and find one.

What are the living conditions like? What things should I make sure to bring when I’ve never been on a long trip to the Middle East? Should I contact a fixer? I don’t have any Turkish knowledge but like I said, my Arabic is strong.

Since you’re from Turkey, I also considered going to Anatolya, Turkey for a few weeks because I am a rock climber. That might be an option for a stop over.

Thanks for your input.

by Mark Kauzlarich | 22 Feb 2012 17:02 | Wisconsin, United States | | Report spam→