STANLEY GREENE: BLACK PASSPORT

Black Passport is the biography of the life of war photographer StanleyGreene. It shows Greene's war images alternated with private images. Theviewer makes acquaintance with Stanley's friends, his wife (later ex-wife),his female friends and his colleagues. Just as Greene himself, the viewerexperiences being tossed to and from between the safe western life and thehorrors of wars elsewhere. What effect does this work - the confrontationwith horrors - have on his character? How does it influence hisrelationships, his loved ones and friends?The basis of Black Passport is, in addition to the photography, a longmonologue by Greene. Teun van der Heijden has put this monologue togetherfrom rough material that was the result of eight extended interviews, andis presented as a film script, in 26 short scenes. The scenes do not form asequential story, but are a kaleidoscope of Greene's key experiences. Inthe first scene, we meet him for example as an ‘au pair' in Paris, inscene 20 he bursts into tears following the lynching of two Americansecurity officers in the Iraqi Fallujah. The bodies were then set on fire. With the exception of one flashback, Stanley's story is toldchronologically in the book. The 26 scenes are given shape by 26photograpic portfolios, each beginning with a short monologue. Thesemonologues are never longer than one page, so that they do not disturb therhythm of the book. The typography is detached and serves to support thespoken character of the monologue. The editing is filmic, the layout roughas in a sketch book. All photos are displayed on black pages.Stanley Greene Having started out as a fashion photographer in Paris, and afterpublishing a book on Paris night life, the black American photographer fromNew York wanted to move into the direction of documentary photography. In atime of massive changes such as the end of the Cold War and the fall of theBerlin Wall, he travelled through the former Eastern bloc and tookphotographs in the Caucusus. At the start of the '90s, he thus foundhimself in the middle of the Chechnya War, the conflict that Greene was tofollow for more than ten years. It became a personal mission for him, whichresulted in 2004 in the book Open Wound. It became Greene's epos about theChechnyan people and its oppression, and made his name better known among abroader audience. Greene has since documented virtually all the hot spotsin the world.Stanley Greene was a long-time member of the renowned photo agency l'AgenceVu. He is one of the founders and part-owners of the recently founded photoagency NOOR.Teun van der Heijden is a graphic designer who lives and works in Amsterdamand has been responsible for the design of the annual World Press Photobook for the last ten years. Van der Heijden has published books and otherpublications about and with, amongst others, James Nachtwey, Kadir vanLohuizen, Ata Kandó, Yuri Kozyrev, George Georgiou and Monique Stauder.Van der Heijden is at his best as designer when he, together with thephotographer, is allowed to tell the story. Black Passport is the ultimateexample of this.