Mohamed Amin
by admin
Studying Photojournalism, you can not avoid the great and glorious such as the late Robert Capa, James Nachtwey or Timothy Allan. One Person however, that one could possibly overlook is the late photojournalist Mohamed Amin.
Amin, a Kenyan photojournalist was born in 1942 and first noted for his pictures and videotapes of the Ethopian Famine in 1984. Mohamed ‘Mo’ Amin first started on his photography path when he first purchased his first camera at the age of 11 years – a Kodak Box Brownie.
At the age of 19 he went professional, after ditching school, and started his first business as a professional photographer in the 1960’s in Dar Es Salaam
Amin, also contributed exclusive photos of the fall of Idi Amin and of Mengistu Haile Mariam, and covered various themes like East African Wildlife and the Uganda Railway. He photographed and documented the move to independence if Kenya and Tanzania and photographed the likes of Kenyatta and Nyerere.
I still remember with shock the TV screens on November 23rd 1996. It was on this day that Mohamed Amin boarded Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961, to travel to Nairobi after a business trip to Ethiopia. History tells us that hijackers stormed the cockpit of ET-AIZ, the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing B767-260ER, and forced the pilot, Leul Abate, to fly east over the Indian Ocean. ET-AIZ ran out of fuel and Abate ditched the aircraft off the coast of the Comoros Islands.
Amin died at age 53 as his body hit the airplane wall, causing his death.
In June 2006, Mo and Me (see Links below), a documentary film about Amin was premiered. It won Best International Documentary at the Los Angeles International Film Festival. Al Jazeera media company and Camerapix funded the film.
Mo Amin is the inspiration for the A24 news channel, a proposed independent pan-African 24-hour ‘African voice for Africa’ which aims to start broadcasting from Nairobi in 2008. His Son Salim Amin stepped into the journalistic shoes of his father continuing Mo’s legacy.
Mo & Me Series
- “Mo & Me” Episode One – Part 1 at YouTube
- “Mo & Me” Episode One – Part 2 at YouTube
- “Mo & Me” Episode Two – Part 1 at YouTube
- “Mo & Me” Episode Two – Part 2 at YouTube
- “Mo & Me” Episode Three – Part 1 at YouTube
- “Mo & Me” Episode Three – Part 2 at YouTube
- “Mo & Me” Episode Four – Part 1 at YouTube
- “Mo & Me” Episode Four – Part 2 at YouTube
- “Mo & Me” Episode Five – Part 1 at YouTube (Labeled as Part 2)
- “Mo & Me” Episode Five – Part 2 at YouTube (Labeled as Part 1)
- “Mo & Me” Episode Six – Part 1 at YouTube
- “Mo & Me” Episode Six – Part 2 at YouTube
- “Mo & Me” Episode Seven – Part 1 at YouTube (Labeled as Part 2)
- “Mo & Me” Episode Seven – Part 2 at YouTube (Labeled as Part 1)
- “Milestones on December 9, 1996 of Time – Announcement of deaths of Mohamed Amin and Brian Tetley
- Mohamed Amin Foundation
- Camerapix
(sourced from Wikipedia)
Comments
Mohammed Amin? That’s the guy who owed my mother a lot of money, when she translated one of his books into German (“Das Schöne Kenia”), way back in 1983.
After she finished the job, Amin never paid her, always making up excuses. Finally, he was hiding away from my parents after he had run out of reasons for delaying the payment – after he had formerly been a colleague of my father. Both, my dad and Mohammed, used to be members of the “Foreign Correspondents’ Association of East Africa”. My dad succeeded Amin as the chairman of that organization for many years, which Amin took very personal.
By the way, I had the honour of going to school (Hillcrest Secondary, from ‘84 until ‘88) with his son, Salim. That spoilt show-off kid was a real racist bastard, and I had trouble with him on many occasions.
As far as the Amin-family is concerned, they may all go to hell for all I care. Good photographers or not.
Tut mir leid, das relativiere ich. Ich wünsch’ denen nix böses; dazu ist es
1. zu lange her
2. gibt’s Leute, die mich viel mehr ankotzen
Aber Assis sind die Amins trotzdem.
Interesting that. From what I can gather from these clips “Mo” Amin was a rather difficult person to work with. He does seem to screw people around a fair bit to get ahead of the game. (Nothing that’s totally uncommon to mankind) But, it does sound a bit like he was someone – der über Leichen geht (as the German saying goes) – to get things working for him. Your story seem to go in line with that impression. Maybe that’s needed to be top of the game. The film illustrates fairly clearly the real costs though.
;-) Did you check out JKE’s blog lately?
What’s your opinion about Kubuntu? Since you’re a computer-geek in a way… JKE and I have been discussing about alternatives to Windows for a long time. I’m still looking for something to replace it with, and would favor LINUX if it had a good version of open office.
Wenn du mit Ubuntu und Consorten gut umgehen kannst würde ich das auf jeden Fall ziehen und officemässig dann ThinkFree Office benutzen. Ist zwar nicht umsonst kostet aber recht wenig (US$50), ist basically Office 2000, und hat support etc. Billiger und komfortabler geht kaum, und du hast das “in Dauerentwickung” Problem geregelt. (Es gibt noch ein Haufen anderer Anbieter die ähnliche Office-versionen anbieten.)
DUDE(s)!
Regardless of what one may think about the Amins, I’ve been trying to get hold of this video for quite some time. In fact, it’s here on this list on my table that goes by the title “Filme downloaden/anschauen”. :-)
Alafu – asanta sana, ndugu!
@Linuxdebatte: Man kann MS-Office via CrossOver laufen lassen, das ist ein kostenpflichtiger Wine-Emulator mit den Entwicklern von Wine. Läuft bisher astrein.
Mein Schwiegervater nutzt nur noch OpenOffice. Vielleicht muss man diesen radikalen Schritt machen, um wirklich wechseln zu wollen. Mit Kubuntu arbeite ich mittlerweile sehr gerne, nur die screen resolution und der clear-type mode sind noch nicht optimal.
Es wird ja oft gesagt, dass Linux nicht wie Windows sein möchte, aber imho würde es denen gut tun, bißchen mehr in diese Richtung zu steuern.
I had to think of Amin just today, as I walked through the entrance of the Hospital in Addis Ababa that “Mo” was rushed to, after the blast that cost him his arm. It was a little surreal being there, and and seing the reminders of it Addis’ crazy history.