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‘You have to be clever and subtle; but above all, your opponents must also have respect for you.’ Perry Kretz, the well-known reporter for Stern magazine, has looked down into the depths of countless human souls. ‘A dead journalist is a bad journalist’ is the motto which has kept him alive for decades through wars, revolutions and gang warfare. Whether in Vietnam or in the two wars against Saddam Hussein, in the Balkans or Nicaragua, in Cambodia or Somalia or as the oldest ‘embedded journalist’ in Iraq, Perry Kretz has an unerring feel for danger. It attracts him, he photographs it – and he knows how to escape from it. His main theme is people facing death. How do they behave when they are about to be executed? What do they feel when pointing a gun at a neighbour? Kretz tells stories full of the strong human emotions – fear and greed, hunger for power and courage. Half a century of contemporary history is stored in his experience and in his photographic archives – half a century in which he never lost faith in God, in humankind or in himself.
About the author:
Perry Kretz was born in Cologne in 1933 and in 1950 went to New York, where he began his studies in journalism. After taking American citizenship he started his career as a photographer for the New York Post, the Keystone picture agency and the New York Police Department. Since 1969 he has worked as a photo-journalist for Stern magazine and above all made a name for himself for his highly-charged documentaries from zones of war and death all over the world. Among his best reporting, for which he has won many awards, are Die Hölle von St. Quentin (The Hell of St Quentin), Die kleinen Banditen von Bogotá (The Little Bandits of Bogotá), New York Street Gangs and many others. Perry Kretz lives in Hamburg, working as a freelance photo-journalist. |
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