Evidence of My Existence

by Jim Lo Scalzo

Overview

From a leper colony in India to an American research station on the Antarctic Peninsula, from the back rooms of the White House to the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, Evidence of My Existence tells a unique and riveting story of seventeen years spent racing from one photo assignment to the next. It is also a story of photojournalism and theconsequences of obsessive wanderlust.

When the book opens, Jim Lo Scalzo is a blur to his wife, her remarkable tolerance wearing thin. She is heading to the hospital with her second miscarriage, and Jim is heading to Baghdad to cover the American invasion of Iraq. He hates himself for this—for not giving her a child, for deserting her when she soobviously needs him, for being consumed by his job—but how to stop moving? Sure, there have been some tough trips. He’s been spit on by Mennonites in Missouri, by heroin addicts in Pakistan, and by the KKK in South Carolina. He’s contracted hepatitis on the Navajo Nation, endured two bouts of amoebic dysentery in India and Burma and four cases of giardia in Nepal, Peru, Afghanistan, and Cuba. He’s been shot with rubber bullets in Seattle, knocked to the ground by a water cannon in Quebec, and sprayed with more teargas than he cares to recall. But photojournalism is his career, and travel is his compulsivecraving.

We follow Lo Scalzo through the maze of airports and crowds and countries as he chases the career he has always wanted, struggles with his family problems, and reveals the pleasures of a life singularly focused. For him, as for so many photojournalists, it is always about the going.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780821417737
Publisher:	Ohio University Press
Publication date:	10/01/2007
Edition description:	1
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Jim Lo Scalzo, a Washington DC native, has been a staff photographer with U.S. News & World Report since 1994. He has had assignments in more than sixty countries and won numerous awards in the Pictures of the Year International and White House News Photographers' Association photo competition.

Editorial Reviews

Photojournalists tell stories with pictures, imparting a unique view of an event, a personality, a landscape. Lo Scalzo, veteran staff photographer for U.S. News & World Report, offers his own stories of the world in this compelling memoir.…What makes this memoir distinct is how it interweaves written snapshots detailing his personal journey, an insider’s look into the field of photojournalism, a study of the creative process, and a descriptive travelog….For all libraries.”—Library Journal

“This is not a picture book. Instead, it is a rare and meaningful look into the life of a photojournalist.”—Digital Journalist

“Set against a backdrop of the most stunning settings the worldto offer—from India to Antarctica—Evidence of My Existence is an intimate and intricate exploration of ambition and thedifficult decisions artists are forced to make in search of a balancebetween work, the love of work, and love itself. Jim Lo Scalzoserves as a brilliant guide—by turns hilarious and heart-torn—and has created a masterful memoir, an exquisite debut!”—Julianna Baggott, author of Which Brings Me to You and Compulsions of Silkworms and Bees

“The memoir is the story of his travels, but it is also much more: It is the story of a photographer coming to terms with his abilities and limitations, and, especially, with the sacrifices that one makes to pursue such a career.”—The Columbus Dispatch

”This is what it's like to be a photojournalist living on the front lines of the best stories in the world. From Afghanistan to Alaska, Lo Scalzo captures the rush, the payoff and the personal sacrifice that comes with making great pictures. He's not only got a great eye for finding the shot, but a great ear for telling the tale.”—Brian Kelly, editor, U.S. News & World Report

From the Publisher

An irascible veteran U.S. News & World Report photographer revisits the mountains and molehills, the dimples and depressions and canyons of his peripatetic life. Lo Scalzo opens with a self-righteous blast at writers of creative nonfiction and memoir, implying that all are cut from the James Frey cloth. He then proceeds to employ many of the techniques others have pioneered and perfected: compression, flashbacks, "remembered" dialogue from decades ago-but all in increasingly effective fashion. The narrative commences with a breathtaking image of his wife Deirdre asleep in a car in Texas, then progresses to early 2003 and his preparation to cover the imminent "stupid war" in Iraq. But a call from Deirdre brought heartbreaking news: a second miscarriage. He left for the war anyway. Then a leap backward to his 11th birthday and his first camera, a Polaroid. Here and elsewhere, the author fails to sufficiently educate his readers. We learn little about his art or about the art of photography in general. He was late in switching to digital from film in 2001, and he offers some cursory, unremarkable comments about the differences between the two. He endured a rough adolescence, a "profound indifference" to schoolwork and a self-serving moral code. He landed an internship, then a job with U. S. News, making the most of his opportunity (despite a contentious relationship with a new photo editor later on). As the author matures, the narrative accelerates. He traveled the world, shot some compelling, often dangerous photographs (ranging from porn production to global warming to warfare) and gradually realized that his wife and newborn child were as important-no, more important-than his career. Notan unexpected epiphany but an affecting one. The weight of self-regard retards but does not prevent a lovely lift off and stirring journey.

Kirkus Reviews