Mark Phillips’ work is a testament to his ability to tell a story through his pictures, not just by observing from a distance but by becoming closely involved and bringing his empathy with each subject to the fore. His work is also defined by a deep respect and admiration for his subjects and their individual stories. Through the course of his work, he has beaten, detained, arrested, and deported from four different countries. He is still banned from entering Chad. Yet with all the pain he endured, Mark continued to pursue his passion in reporting the truth through the lens.
In this podcast, he shares his experience and wisdom with those aspiring to be a journalist. One of the most important lessons to being successful is to be nice to others:
“Little people become big people. People may not remember you being nice but people remember you being assholes so that can come back and haunt you.”
Mark is an award-winning Cameraman with experience in broadcast journalism for over 30 years and covered every major conflict in past 20 years including Afghanistan, Iraq, Rwanda, and Pakistan with Christian Amanpour. He has been honored with two Emmys, one for video journalism for his work in Afghanistan and the Philippines and the other for his coverage in Syria and Iraq. He has also received awards from the Royal Television Society, Peabody and Dupont.
Mark started his career in regional television in Australia, then moving to the United Kingdom in the early 90s. He then joined CNN in 1993 and was sent to Bosnia the following year to work alongside Christiane Amanpour with whom he would continue to work for the next 15 years, covering Rwanda, Afghanistan, Iran, and many other countries in conflict during the 90s.
In the 2000s, he was one of the first journalists to enter Kabul after the fall of the Taliban and was embedded with the British forward command for the second Iraq war. He was the pool camera for the start of Saddam Hussein’s trial. In 2004 he covered the Asian tsunami and within the next two years was one of only a few Western journalists to report on cyclone Nargis in Myanmar. In the 2010s, Mark was in Sirte, Libya, for the fall of Gaddafi. He went on to cover the Japanese tsunami and later cyclone Haiyan in the Philippines. He would continue reporting on Afghanistan, Iraq, and later Syria. Mark has lived in Southeast Asia for the past 20 years, residing in Bangkok for the last 10.
Wisdoms Takeaway
- Pay attention to your own health by exercising and understanding your own mental state to deal with the traumatic experiences
- You don’t have to make friends with everybody but you have to be pleasant to people.
- As a cameraman, you have to speak to your correspondent to understand the narrative and shots that aligns with the story
- Be proficient with your setup so that you can focus on what matters