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Sep-27-2011 04:39printcommentsVideo

Two War Photographers Available for Talks and Visual Demonstrations

One British, one American, and their experience covering wars in six countries.

War photographers Dexter Phoenix and Tim King
Salem-News.com

(SALEM, Ore.) - Palestine, Iraq, Israel, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Kuwait. You can see the images of people and places, combat and strife, humanitarian efforts and survival techniques. Food for some and graves for others. Love, hate, religion, humanity, inhumanity...

Photos by Dexter Phoenix

People are curious about what it looks like and feels like to be in a war zone shooting photographs, video, and conducting interviews, trying to stay safe while absorbing local culture and meeting people whose lives are impacted by the violence of war and the tragedy of loss.

Tim King and Dexter Phoenix of Salem-News.com are available for talks, lectures and presentations for your group, school, or business gathering. Learn the inside story about life in the embattled regions of the world. Write to our newsroom at newsroom@salemp-news.com

Dexter's travels have led to some of the world's most far-flung, dangerous spots. His work as an independent photojournalist has allowed free access to the most incredible places, like the birthplace of Jesus in Bethlehem. (see: The Day Combat Ops Cleared the Birthplace of Jesus Dexter Phoenix & Tim King)

Dexter was the only person there that day; everyone had fled because a war was raging outside.

Photos by Tim King

His images show the war on Lebanon in 2006; Israeli tanks firing into civilian neighborhoods; examples of the weaponry used by the Israeli Defence Forces, and many examples of the people on both sides of a conflict that rages in the Holy Land and adjacent countries.

History is conveyed in an artful, sometimes violent way through his collection of top quality photos, and each image tells a story of its own.

Tim King's work touches home in many ways and includes video as well as still photos. His time in war as an 'embedded reporter' was not as free ranging as Dexter's, at least not in Afghanistan. Much of Tim's reportage is very specific to the United States' wars and Oregon's participation in particular, as Tim was embedded with the Oregon National Guard in both Afghanistan, (winter 2006/2007) and in Iraq (summer 2008).

Tim's images also tell a number of stories. Oregon soldiers from the 41st Brigade Combat Team are possibly the most professional and decent individuals in the war effort, and they bring an essential civilian presence to the Army. Their wartime stories are told as they face challenges and interact with Afghan people and a diverse number of situations. Tim's time in Iraq was largely spent on patrols with the Army's 101st Airborne and the Marines in Anbar Province, though he also worked closely with an Oregon aviation group, the 2/641 at Balad.

He will show images of places like al Dujail where a car bomb has been detonated in front of a building, killing dozens of people. The photos show the aftermath and also how life is carrying on in a fairly normal way. This is Iraq, a war torn nation that has literally been torn apart by a war based on bad information.

Endless examples of Tim and Dexter's work are available on Salem-News.com, so a person curious beyond these examples can easily learn a great deal more.

To see all of Tim's articles in chronological order, visit the link below. At this time Tim has approximately 2,000 published articles on Salem-News.com, all always available to view at no cost. View all articles written by Tim King

Tim's articles and photos from Iraq:

Tim's articles and photos from Afghanistan:

See all of the Salem-News.com articles that contain photos by Dexter Phoenix

Here are some of Tim's reports from Afghanistan and Iraq:




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Angela September 29, 2011 6:21 pm (Pacific time)

Mr. King several classmates provided some more info that you might find interesting.

From a student--- "The Wall Street Journal has a compilation of easy to read data that references the DOD."In 2008, using data provided by the Defense Department, only 11% of enlisted military recruits in 2007 came from the poorest one-fifth, or quintile, of American neighborhoods (as of the 2000 Census), while 25% came from the wealthiest quintile. They reported that "these trends are even more pronounced in the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program, in which 40% of enrollees come from the wealthiest neighborhoods, a number that has increased substantially over the past four years." Indeed, the DOD report showed that "low-income families are underrepresented in the military and high-income families are overrepresented. Individuals from the bottom household income quintile make up 20.0 percent of Americans who are age 18-24 years old but only 10.6 percent of the 2006 recruits and 10.7 percent of the 2007 recruits. Individuals in the top two quintiles make up 40.0 percent of the population, but 49.3 percent of the recruits in both years." "It is reported that hispanic males (18 to 24 years old) in 2007 made up 20.2% of that U.S. population demographic, and 13.05% of total recruits. It was nearly the same in 2006, but could not find anything about this population currently, though Hispanics are underrepresented in the referenced years."

I just found out that our school principal was one of the first to go into Iraq, and we have several teachers that were also there. It appears that with nearly ten long years of war, I may find myself in Iraq or Afghanistan, or maybe even Libya or some other war with the way things are going. I am no fan of country music either, but have no problem watching a wide variety of news programs. Angela. -- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903791504576587244025371456.html?mod=rss_opinion_main

Tim King: Angela, it is a fascinating place, I am glad to have been able to see Iraq regardless of all else.  I have many people in my life who have served there and we always have to remember that the human beings who become the tools of war, are not the policy makers who drag us in to begin with.  I appreciate the data you sent, over the years we have kept up better at times, too few on our staff to really adequately stay on top of the statistics.  You probably know that there was clearly during the Vietnam war, an imbalance between white and minorities and this is why the govt. chose to allow 'Cat 4'' (Category 4 on the ASVAB test)  enlistees to join.  This preceded the tragedy at My Lai and man others.  Bush did the same thing for the current wars, though I think they stopped the inclusion of cat-4's, I'm not sure.  A final thought; there is a lot of filtering taking place with western media, I hope you check out foreign media and Salem-News.com, where a large portion of our writers are in the places where world events are taking place, thanks. 


Angela September 28, 2011 10:30 am (Pacific time)

I'm curious, since you two have spent time with our military personnel, do you know much about their current socio-economic and educational backgrounds? For example are most from lower financial families who have done poorly in school, or are most from higher financial backgrounds who did well in school but joined more for patriotic reasons? Or some other mixture of the previous two? Also are hispanics more represented at a higher rate than our population in the general public? Whites? African Americans? Also do you have sources that I can look up, because my teachers are real sticklers for that. P.S. I tried looking up data at the DOD, but it's quite complicated for me. Thank You. Angela

Tim King: Hi Angela, there is much to say.  and a diverse nature exists with all of this because the dynamics change based upon the military service, and also whether or not the people in the war are in the reserves, the national guard, etc.  I believe that a large percentage of the U.S. Army soldiers are very young and absolutely join for mostly economic reasons.  Yes, there is a degree of patriotism in most of them.  I did not note numbers of minorities to be unusually high. however the presence of things like country music - mandated on all buses traveling around bases in Iraq.  That is a type of music only popular with a limited few, yet it is forced upon the troops.  The same holds true for FOX News, and yest I know I have worked for FOX stations, however their news is not news, but politically motivated information designed to bolster the position of a certain class in society, interestingly the same one that drives us to war in the first place.  I don't know exactly where to send you for the data you are looking for, the DoD should be the group that has it.  Feel free to ask other questions, thanks.

 Tim King    

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