Hostile Environments and First Aid
As photographers, filmmakers and writers we have to go where the work is, where the story is, where our subject is. Sometimes that’s a dangerous place. But there are ways of reducing physical and financial risk. And many of the practices throughout this article are recommended for an everyday workflow, as a safeguard against a worst-case-scenario. This post isn’t meant as a motivator. I’m not trying to push you into hostile territory. The opposite actually, this is meant to give pause before diving in, and to offer some safety resources for circumstances outside of your control.
For the purposes of this article let’s count “dangerous places” or “hostile environments” as any active conflict, environmental event, riot, land grab, or forced eviction. Any situation where events could turn physical. Whether you’re on assignment for an outlet, or working on a personal project, you should have some safety contingencies in place, as many as possible actually.
On a personal project, I’ll add expense costs on to my final price. On assignment, I’ll ask the outlet to cover these costs. Depending on the outlet, they’re used to this. Plus we’ve been seeing reports of under-supported freelancers for a long time, so most outlets are keen to overturn the stereotype.
First up is “danger money,” an additional percentage on top of your fee. It’s a general pay increase, just because everyone recognizes the situation is dicey. For assignments request this upfront. For personal projects negotiate this during pitching.
When travel is involved you’ll need money upfront for expenses - accommodation, food, fuel, perhaps a translator, and a driver. Ideally you want this expense money in your account with plenty of time to turn it into local cash currency before you leave. It should be in addition to your final fee - this is not profit, it’s necessary to get the job done. Cash is very important as ATMs and cash machines might be down or empty. You won’t have time to drive to Chase Bank in the middle of a mortar attack.
Some sort of medical coverage is important too. For you lucky Europeans this comes as standard, but in the US we need to find our own way. General plans can be very expensive, but I’ve had great results using “short term health insurance” for 6 month periods with www.ehealthinsurance.com.
When pushing into dangerous situations try to find extra coverage that includes helicopter evacuation. Some outlets help with this, or if you’re working independently Reports San Frontiers (www.rsf.org) offers insurance that includes medivac helicopter coverage. And grants from The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting offer the same.
Regarding transportation, consider leaving your personal vehicle safely at home. Instead I often use a rental. For example when covering weather events I’ll hire the largest truck I can find, adding on the full damage waiver insurance package. Then, even if something happens to the truck, the damage waiver means I’m not liable. There’s no risk! If I’m abroad I’ll hire a driver and a vehicle. Again, no risk.
Take control of your own first aid, and put together a solid medical kit. One of the greatest dangers you’ll face in a hostile scenario is blood-loss, whether it’s a knife wound, a gun shot, a car wreck, or simply a fall onto something sharp. Death from an arterial wound can happen within two minutes. There will be no time to get to hospital, so get hold of some “Combat Application Tourniquets” and learn to use them to stop blood flow. Research “wound packing” with a hemostatic agent, as an additional method of slowing blood-loss after a tourniquet has been applied. Make sure to throw some “Quick Clot Gauze” into your bag. Lastly get some “chest seals” which allow the re-inflation of punctured lungs, again in the event of wounds from bullets, knives, or any accidents involving sharp objects. All of these items I keep in my bag most days, call me paranoid…
It’s an extreme thought, but worth mentioning while we’re on the topic of blood - I sometimes have a Velcro patch with my blood type visible. It’s never been necessary, but will make medical care much faster if I can’t speak, or if medics don’t have the capacity to find medical records and need to give a transfusion. My go-to place for medical equipment is SAM Medical (www.sammedical.com), they stock everything listed above. Also consider enrolling in a course to effectively use these tools, RISC (www.risctraining.org) runs a first aid course specifically for journalists.
Try to carry your own food. Personally I pack boxes of Lara bars wherever I go. Try to find something that doesn’t need refrigerating, that’s easy on your stomach, and can be thrown in with equipment. And include lots of it. You don’t want to have to stop working to try to find a store or restaurant, and depending on the scenario there might not be any.
Ideally work dangerous environments with a colleague. You can watch each other’s backs, gauge situations together, and offer each other medical or physical help if there’s a problem. Find another freelancer who often works similar events, and ask to team up.
Assign an anchor person outside of the hostile event. This could be another friend, or a member of your family. Someone to whom you can say “if I don’t check in by this time, do this…” At which point they can notify police, or enact a more detailed contingency plan to help.
For extreme scenarios, consider a helmet to guard against flying objects, bricks, bottles etc, a gas mask, and a bullet vest. Bullet vests are graded in “levels.” Level 3 will stop a pistol round, level 4 will stop a pistol round and a rifle round. Absolutely invest in a level 4 vest!
When shopping for a bullet vest, avoid the temptation to buy used. The more hits a vest takes, the lower its integrity. After a while it’ll start letting rounds through, the same as a brick wall - a regular cinder block (breeze block) can only absorb three of four rifle rounds before they penetrate. Old technology is less efficient too. Steel plates used to be the favorite method, now new companies employ thousands of layers of stacked nylon to create super strong bullet proof boards, plus they are way lighter.
Lastly, after you’ve worked in a hostile environment, please find some mental health care. Find a therapist online and talk over the event. Better Help (www.betterhelp.com) has affordable therapy for those with limited insurance. If neglected, emotional responses to working in rough places will build up, and manifest in strange ways, taking time and energy to unpick and understand. I can attest to this from personal experience. I sometimes struggle with irrational reactions to events in my life now, that I think are results of trauma experienced working conflict scenarios years ago. Protect your mind by dealing with these issues as they come up.
With these things in place you’ll guard yourself against worst-case-scenarios, and will be ready to deal with problems as they come up. It’s about building safety nets so that you can enjoy the work, and stay healthy for the future.