Ohio University Press, 2007 eISBN: 978-0-8214-4661-4 | Cloth: 978-0-8214-1772-0 | Paper: 978-0-8214-1773-7 Library of Congress Classification TR140.L67A3 2007 Dewey Decimal Classification 779.092
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
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.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
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.
REVIEWS
“Set against a backdrop of the most stunning settings the world has to offer—from India to Antarctica—Evidence of My Existence is an intimate and intricate exploration of ambition and the difficult decisions artists are forced to make in search of a balance between work, the love of work, and love itself. Jim Lo Scalzo serves 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
"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 of U.S. News & World Report
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Author's Note 000
Acknowledgments 000
Prologue: Texas 001
1. Iraq 000
2. North Carolina 000
3. India 000
4. Maryland 000
5. Brazil 000
6. Missouri 000
7. Arizona 000
8. Burma 000
9. California 000
10. Morocco 000
11. Russia 000
12. Antarctica 000
13. Alaska 000
14. St. John 000
15. Afghanistan 000
16. Texas (Reprise) 000
17. Iraq (Reprise) 000
18. Italy 000
19. Libya 000
Ohio University Press, 2007 eISBN: 978-0-8214-4661-4 Cloth: 978-0-8214-1772-0 Paper: 978-0-8214-1773-7
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.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
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.
REVIEWS
“Set against a backdrop of the most stunning settings the world has to offer—from India to Antarctica—Evidence of My Existence is an intimate and intricate exploration of ambition and the difficult decisions artists are forced to make in search of a balance between work, the love of work, and love itself. Jim Lo Scalzo serves 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
"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 of U.S. News & World Report
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Author's Note 000
Acknowledgments 000
Prologue: Texas 001
1. Iraq 000
2. North Carolina 000
3. India 000
4. Maryland 000
5. Brazil 000
6. Missouri 000
7. Arizona 000
8. Burma 000
9. California 000
10. Morocco 000
11. Russia 000
12. Antarctica 000
13. Alaska 000
14. St. John 000
15. Afghanistan 000
16. Texas (Reprise) 000
17. Iraq (Reprise) 000
18. Italy 000
19. Libya 000
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC