Reportage: The Israeli Bird Flu Outbreak
April 2006 By Rafael Ben-Ari Living in Israel, close to Gaza Strip and being a freelance photographer in a country full of news and even more photographers, I came to accept the late phone calls and very early morning starts to beat the competition and met the deadlines. Not knowing much of the Bird flu epidemic, which is engrossing the world, I was soon to learn and see more that I would have liked to in any other job.
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It was early Friday morning when the chief photographer of international photo wire agency that I work with rang me with the news that a flock of dying turkeys was found in southern Israel near Gaza Strip and were suspected of carrying the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu and that I needed to start to document the event immediately and send the images via FTP as soon as I can. As I knew that it might be a breaking story for me as a photojournalist in Israel, It was necessary for me to be resourceful, sociable, quick thinking and as informed as possible. An hour later I arrived at the first infected turkey coop in Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha, with all my photography gear, much enthusiasm and a small scarf to cover my face against breathing in the disease. Being the first photographer to arrive I expected many more to come as this is commonplace with news such as this. I found the Kibbutz turkey coops to be empty of people as no one was working or in the area so I shot a few images of the turkeys in their encasements, alive and well and thought about moving on to the other infected Kibbutz, but decided to be patient and waited for someone to arrive. As I waited I took a short walk around the outside of the pens and I found an open turkey coop door where infected dead turkeys sprawled out of it in a pile. Fortunately soon after, a poultry farmer arrived in his pick up truck with some foreign workers with signs reading in Hebrew Danger! Contained disease. The area is closed and entrance is forbidden. Wearing a mask the poultry farmer handed me, I photographed the foreign workers hanging the signs on the fence surrounding the turkey coop while a poultry farmer dressed up in a biohazard suit and entered the fenced area. I knew at this point that these actions were more than precaution. As the other photographers arrived, I had a few good photos that were exclusive but not the winning photo. As the workers drove off I realized that it was unproductive for me to hang around and as I decided to go to the next infected kibbutz Holit, I was asked to leave the area by the agriculture ministry officer that started to panic as it was their first time in dealing with a situation like this. So I left, but not before I found out when they were planning to start the culling of the turkey to prevent the spread of the disease and to take them out of their misery. The agriculture ministry said that the culling by poison would start right after the weekend, first thing on Sunday morning and that they needed to restrict the drinking water from the turkeys first so they would become dehydrated and drink the poison to die as quickly as possible to prevent them from unnecessary suffering and further spread of the disease. In Holit I found closed turkey coops and nothing to photograph so I decided to call it a day and to send the pictures to the agency. On Saturday afternoon I got a phone call from my chief photographer telling me that the virus was spreading rapidly and had been found in few more settlements around Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha so the government had decided to prevent further spread of the disease and would not to wait with the killing till Sunday. They had ordered the Israeli agricultural ministry employees to start culling immediately by slaughtering all turkeys and chickens in a three-mile radius. He told me that he needed a specific photo that conveyed the extensive culling of the hundreds of thousands of turkeys. An hour later I arrived to the culling fields at twilight-time when the light was warm so it gave a surrealistic look to the killing process that was going on, I got the camera from the front seat and started to document the sullen and graphic burial process. The agricultural ministries were taking extra precautions while dealing with the flu and wore Disposable Anti chemical suits plus face covers. They walked around the coops houses and started to slaughter the distressed and dying turkeys, taking a knife to their throats if they were not already dead. This was a very intense moment for me to photograph as the stench of flesh filled the air and the visual scene of the slaughtering was at times too much too see but as far as I understood there was unfortunately no other way. Night started to fall, and I still needed that winning photograph so along with a longer exposure at a fast ISO I was able to show the workers dispose the dead turkeys into a huge ground grave dropped by a massive red truck against the dramatic darkening sky. I returned the next morning stopping to get fuel and a copy of the paper with last nights published photo on the front page. The devastation was mind-boggling. The distress on some of the turkeys faces and the people that I met made me want to walk away. But being a professional photographer you need to put your emotions aside and to focus on and capture the things that happen in front of your eyes. Over the next few days, I visited many infected turkey coops and I met many people that were in charge on the killing and as I got more and more involved in the bird flu prevention efforts I felt greater sympathy towards the subject. I also found myself overwhelmed with the realization that I was one of a very few photographers to cover the event. Some just could not see or bear the intense smell of the hard massacre of the birds. I went through all the places that the flu struck in Israel and covered the event as close as I could until the Israeli government declared that all the media personnel were restricted to enter any infected areas until the eradication of disease was complete. Eventually over a million turkeys were killed since it all began and the Israeli poultry farmers asked the government to declare it a national disaster so they would be compensated, but because the Israeli elections were the next week it never happened. Israeli people stopped to buy turkey products and some factories have been shut down until it is confirmed that there is no infected meat to find its way to the consumers and spread or even kill humans. Today Israel is still under the threat of another outbreak.
There were a few aspects and points of views for this story that were covered. From the agriculturist's point of view and the loss of there product and the hard work that they put into growing their poultry. Would they be compensated? The workers that had to kill the turkeys by poisoning or slaughtering them. How did this affect them? The agricultural ministry officials that supervised on preventing the spread of the disease and fought against time to bury the remains before other bird or animals will eat the infected meat and pass it on. Were they doing everything possible to prevent the spread of the disease? The last was the consumers of poultry products that stopped buying it and how they would influence the meat factories in Israel Europe and the Middle East. Did the bird flu stop people eating poultry products?
Advice to all photojournalists if they will come across an event like this: First, wear a facemask and full protective clothing including plastic shoe covers. Be prepared and have this ready before hand. Second always introduce yourself before photographing and show your press card when you are asked by officials to do so. Make sure that the authority accept you being there and that you do not interfere with their task and in case that they wont let you to stay close, walk back and try to photograph the action from distance with a telephoto lens. Make sure you get your car cleaned by the authorities before you leave the infected area so to not spread the disease to other parts of your country. - Be aware of what is going on around you and be ready to be where the image moment will happen - Focus on your subject and always look for the effective emotional picture - Be friendly with others and respect them to get their help. - Be patient. Often the best photos happen when you have thought to give up. - Master your photography equipment so it becomes second nature when the moment arises. - Try to take an advantage from problems or situations like mixed light sources inaccessibility and be creative. -The ability to anticipate action will come with experience -Remember the five ws who, what, where, when, why for image captioning.
The Essential equipment for news photography:
Two bodies of professional digital cameras (Nikon or Canon)
Two lenses:
Option A. Fixed 20mm (ultra wide angle) on one camera and 300mm (telephoto) on the other camera
Option B. Use zoom lenses 17-35mm on one camera and 70-300mm on the other camera.
Monopod
Speed light flash plus battery pack
Road map
Note book and a pen
Do not drink too much fluid as you can miss a shot when you are looking for a toilet
Do not carry photography equipment, more than you can run with
All weather jacket or photography vest.
Bum bag/Pouches for lenses
Swiss army knife
Press Card.
Try to get one from the local police if you intend to publish image in local or international news.
Comfortable walking shoes and pants with lots of pockets.
http://www.photography.chameleonseye.com
http://www.chameleonseye.com
Photographer: Rafael Ben-Ari is from Israel and became an on location photographer in 1994 after gaining a Professional Photography Diploma from NYI and studying at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. He then traveled the world to immerse himself in many manners of work and cultures. Being able to speak fluent English, Hebrew and basic Arabic, Rafael has enabled himself to work in most parts of the world, living in countries such as England, Australia, New Zealand and is now based in Israel. Rafael has covered events such as the Americas Cup, the Salvador Carnival and the Israeli Disengagement.
19.11.2006. 07:07