NY Times Baghdad Bureau: Michael Kamber

There’s a pretty cool piece in the Times today by our own Michael Kamber, who’s currently working for the Baghdad Bureau. It’s rare to se...

There’s a pretty cool piece in the Times today by our own Michael
Kamber, who’s currently working for the Baghdad Bureau. It’s rare to see straight photo-reportage from
the field in a major newspaper like this; it’s really a striking snippet of war
life. The piece is called “Captain as Maestro, Conducting Amid Crisis”, and it profiles
Captain David Sandoval as he tries to negotiate several crises at once:

“On one phone, he raised his platoon at a combat outpost in the area,
directing it toward the intersection. On the second phone, he talked to
a helicopter pilot flying over Mosul’s deadly east side. On the third,
he talked to the spotter. Captain Sandoval was the operation’s maestro,
coordinating the movements of the three and relaying messages.”

Michael Kamber for The New York Times
Capt. David Sandoval in Mosul, speaking with his men out on a difficult mission. “I sleep at least three hours a day,” he said.

I asked Michael about this kind of reporting and he says
he’s always done it:

“I have written for many years,
mostly to accompany my photo-essays. Some projects evolve into being more words
than photos. I’m also doing a lot of video now. The multimedia age is upon us,
but I was writing 20 years ago so it’s not new to me. I’ve been in Baghdad off
and on since 2003. I work from the NYT Bureau here outside the IZ in
the Karahda neighbohood, but I do a lot of embeds too, usually for a week or
ten days at a time.”

Michael also
alerted me to the Times’ Baghdad
Bureau blog, which is an amazing read. I wish I had known about it sooner. He had a piece up a few days ago; you can see
it here.