Deborah Copaken Kogan’s memoir Shutterbabe tells the story of a woman navigating the world of war photojournalism and the journey of self-discovery. Kogan tells a brutally honest story of her career as a photojournalist that is highly enjoyable and shocking at the same time.
Kogan spent four brutal years, from 1988 to 1992, as a war photojournalist before becoming a writer. She covered everything from the war in Afghanistan to rhino poaching in Zimbabwe. Prior to covering wars, Kogan graduated from Harvard University during 1988 with a degree in photography along with an arts and letters degree.
Kogan came into a world of photojournalism that was still heavily invested in film and a male dominated career field, particularly when it came to war photography. She talks about how she has to navigate herself to be accepted into the photojournalism fraternity in order to build up her reputation. This has her going in alone to war zones, trusting of some shady characters, and the moments of poverty between photojournalism jobs.
She gives full detail of the gruesome and horrific scenes that she had to cover. Kogan gives a raw image of what she saw, her reactions, and the reactions of the people that were around her.
Some of the disturbing scenes she gives account from her own personal life. For example, during the first chapter, she gives an account of how she was raped after her college graduation. The account is something that she tells very blunt and the effect it had on her.
Alongside the telling of her photojournalism career is the men that have an affect or reveal something about her. Three of these men are lovers, one a good Samaritan, her future husband, and her son. Each of these men do teach her about what she wants in life, her ethics, and about love.
I believe the purpose that Kogan wrote Shutterbabe was a combination of three reasons: to expose what it was like to war photojournalist, being a woman in a heavily male dominate profession, and her own coming of age story.
Her writing painted a realistic picture of what happened in some of the locations that she was sent to photograph. It is hard for a reader to imagine some of the events or actions happening in the world. Due to photographs that she scatters within certain chapters and moments, it affirms that all Kogan describes as factual.
Kogan’s memoir reveals a lot of the sexual harassment, sexual assault, and the belittling that she experiences. It is startling to read where she would receive the blunt of the harassment was from men she worked alongside.
Kogan’s writing about herself early in her career to when she ended her photojournalism career is a definite progression in maturity and ideals. Readers get a sense that she gets smarter about how she approaches situations and thoughts about the world, particularly with starting a family.
Shutterbabe is created from personal recollection of what happened during her photojournalism career for six chapters. The entire book is through her observations and participation of what is happening in front of her and how she responds to the situations.
I believe that this personal observation and participation to write the memoir is to reveal the main three reasons for writing it. I also believe that it causes the audience to grow with Kogan and view her career as an audience within her head. Being an observer to her thoughts and what she does in situations makes it more personal, almost if you were in the room as well with the same emotions.
I personally enjoyed every page and sentence of Shutterbabe. Every chapter felt like a wax strip being ripped off, in that you weren’t entirely sure about what atrocity Kogan was going to face or have happen to her. Starting a chapter tended to start off slow but was done to show foreshadowing when you finished the chapter.
Her writing style really appealed to me with her sense of harden, truthful, and sarcastic approach. She does battle with being an unemotional photojournalist and being emotionally compromised to what she sees. Sometimes it is hard to imagine some of the events actually happening, but that is when her photography plays a role in the story.
I did occasionally question her journalistic integrity, mainly due to how she got photos of certain things through grocery bribery. This does conflict, in my opinion, with her ideal to report and cause social justice with her photography.
It does get a bit tiring to hear her sexual endeavors a majority of the chapters, but I do feel like they play a role within the narrative. I think the amount of times she talks about her lovers then calming down a bit towards the end signifies a change of attitude and goals she wants in life.
I do think also sharing her sex life is almost how she is being one of the guys by sharing it and that she is unapologetic in that she enjoys sex.
Some of her talk about film and photography I feel like might fly over some people’s heads if they don’t do it themselves. I even feel like some of the struggles with using film was hard for me to grasp due to only being exposed to digital photography.
The final chapter I feel is a little off beat with the rest of the book but is key to show how she has changed. Reader can definitely tell there is an emotional change with Kogan on subjects and isn’t as reckless.
Shutterbabe is a solid read to understand what happens with being a war photojournalist and being a woman in a ruthless male dominated profession. I recommend it to anyone who is in the photojournalist environment and anyone who enjoys a rough around the edges and sarcastic female character.
I give Shutterbabe a 8.5/10 rolls of film smuggled into countries.
I just did a quick Google look. She wrote a couple of novels before 2012. Since then she has been more of an essayist, journalist. Her husband died in 2018. One of her most recent articles seems to be about her dog’s death. She seems to have one of those lives that is open to the world.
I don’t remember having the same reactions to the text as you did, but I am not the requisite gender. I think your reading of her motives are pretty accurate, as are your thoughts about her style and subject matter.