Babak Fakhamzadeh
Quite the character, Page was to some extent the inspiration for the character portrayed by Dennis Hopper in Apocalypse Now. A war photographer, specifically active during the Vietnam war, he underwent neurosurgery in the US after a near-fatal encounter. Afterwards, working as caregivers for amputees and traumatized returnees, he worked with Ron Kovic, who's story became the movie Born on the Fourth of July. Derailed is something of a memoir, released in 1995, but written mostly a few years before, detailing Page's return to Vietnam and Cambodia, as a photographer. For me, having visited Vietnam the year prior to reading the book, the country Page encountered only 20 years ago is as different as to how I saw it as it was from when he left it during the Vietnam war. As a result, the book has relevance primarily as a memoir or, if you will, a sign of the times. Page, known for his extensive drug use, too regularly makes a point of his smoking habits, which gets old quickly. Interestingly, he doesn't drink.
A large part of the book is about Page's times with Sean Flynn, the son of Erol Flynn, who went MIA in Cambodia (and who was immortalized in a The Clash song). Later, when returning, Page spent quite some time tracking down what happened to his friend.
Two years after this book was released, he released Requiem, containing photographs by journalists killed in south east Asia during the many wars there. From this, a permanent photographic exhibition followed at the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh, which I went to see last year.
Quite the character, Page was to some extent the inspiration for the character portrayed by Dennis Hopper in Apocalypse Now. A war photographer, specifically active during the Vietnam war, he underwent neurosurgery in the US after a near-fatal encounter. Afterwards, working as caregivers for amputees and traumatized returnees, he worked with Ron Kovic, who's story became the movie Born on the Fourth of July. Derailed is something of a memoir, released in 1995, but written mostly a few years before, detailing Page's return to Vietnam and Cambodia, as a photographer. For me, having visited Vietnam the year prior to reading the book, the country Page encountered only 20 years ago is as different as to how I saw it as it was from when he left it during the Vietnam war. As a result, the book has relevance primarily as a memoir or, if you will, a sign of the times. Page, known for his extensive drug use, too regularly makes a point of his smoking habits, which gets old quickly. Interestingly, he doesn't drink.
A large part of the book is about Page's times with Sean Flynn, the son of Erol Flynn, who went MIA in Cambodia (and who was immortalized in a The Clash song). Later, when returning, Page spent quite some time tracking down what happened to his friend.
Two years after this book was released, he released Requiem, containing photographs by journalists killed in south east Asia during the many wars there. From this, a permanent photographic exhibition followed at the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh, which I went to see last year.