With graduation and summer looming around the corner, some SF State students may be planning a pleasure trip to Europe. But for Ken Holt, sightseeing was the last thing on his mind last summer. After minoring in history and majoring in journalism, Holt decided to travel to Bosnia-Herzegovina.
"I had this huge desire to go, whether or not there was a war --historically it's a fascinating region. I was tired of reading about it in the New York Times and seeing it on CNN. I wanted to see what it was like to live in such a place.
"I also wanted to take pictures for myself -- for my portfolio. If I could sell pictures that would be great. But I didn't expect to sell pictures," Holt said.
Eventually, Holt got a job stringing for Agence France Presse in Croatia, through the bureau chief there, after a trial run photographing the Pope when he visited Zagreb. Armed with a flack jacket, a helmet, cameras and a back pack, he took off late last June and stayed through November. After securing a press card from the United Nations Protection Office, Holt flew into Bosnia-Herzegovina from Zagreb, Croatia on a 40-minute humanitarian aid flight.
Before arriving in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Holt went to the town of Mostar, which had been reduced to rubble because of fighting .
"There were still people living there -- the Croatian side of town was still standing but the Muslim side was destroyed."
In Sarajevo there wasn't the same level of destruction, Holt said, because of the way it is situated geographically.
"Sarajevo is in a valley ringed by mountains, and for the past three years Serbs have sat on those mountains and lobbed mortars into the city and shot people on the street and none of the people who live there are allowed to leave.
"There is a climate there of people being locked in a prison where the guards are constantly shooting down. Most of the time they have no electricity, no running water and they are struggling to get food. Yet at the same time, there are cafes open, they're serving pizza, there's people sitting in cafes drinking coffee."
When Holt was there, the war was at its quietest point.
"The streets were filled with lovers walking arm-in-arm, sitting by the river and at cafes -- that totally surprised me," said Holt. "In another part of town people are running across the street because there is someone sitting up on the hill shooting at people. It's a weird juxtaposition."
Holt made his way about town mostly on foot, with an occasional ride on the city's trolley, a notorious Serbian target. He hung out in cafes, talking and making friends, while capturing moments in between with his camera -- trying to illustrate life, not death.
"People didn't really see me as a journalist, because I spent so much time hanging out with the people there. People started to trust me."
Because of the way some western journalists treat them, Holt said, some people in Sarajevo aren't as open as in other places in Bosnia. "In a very real sense, people are starting to go crazy. They feel like caged animals or freaks."
Holt said outside of Sarajevo people were much more relaxed. "They'd invite me into their houses, over for coffee. They would start just giving me stuff, and they were always asking about America."
Holt tried to stay away from making pictures of death. Calling himself a tourist, he wanted to learn about the lives of the people there.
"If I was a staff photographer for any of those news agencies, I would have had to shoot those pictures because that's part of the job," he explained. "They are very popular pictures and it is important for people to know that people are getting shot all of the time.
"I don't have anything against that, I just didn't want to sit on Snipers Alley and wait for people to get shot. I was more interested in walking around and talking to people and seeing the town itself."
Living there, it was impossible not to come to some of his own personal conclusions about the political situation.
"I am very, very biased for the Muslims and against most of the Serbs and the Croats. It's not easy to say one side is good and one side is bad, but the Muslims are perhaps the most innocent and certainly the most battered of all three parties."
Like with friends at American parties, Holt said, they would drink beer, play Dylan on the guitar, talk and laugh.
"The only things that made it different was that there were bullet holes in the wall and these guys would, the next morning, go off and fight on the front lines."