Author(s): Neil McDonald

Fiction

This revised edition published 2004. Vital new discoveries enrich this revised and expanded version of Neil McDonald's classic 1994 biography of legendary photographer and war cameraman Damien Parer. The new revelations include the author's recent finding that during the darkest days of the withdrawal from Kokoda, Parer and ABC broadcaster Chester Wilmot were recruited as liaison officers. Parer's Oscar-winning newsreel Kokoda Front Line was not only a record of conditions on the Track, but a virtual report to the commanding general. Extended interviews with famed still photographer George Silk about his adventures with Parer in the Middle East and Greece cast new light on relationships in the photographic unit, headed by celebrated Antarctic photographer Frank Hurley. The most important new discovery is Parer's last completed film of a massacre on Guam - a moving testimony to his sensitivity and compassion. Frame enlargements from the original footage are published here for the first time in sixty years. The fast-paced narrative takes Parer from his education in Bathurst and his apprenticeship as a still photographer, to his time as one of Charles Chauvel's crew for Uncivilised and Forty Thousand Horsemen, culminating in his appointment as Official Photographer covering the Australian campaign in the Middle East, Greece, Syria and New Guinea. There are vivid portraits of famous contemporaries such as Chester Wilmot, Frank Hurley, Osmar White, Max Dupain, Olive Cotton, George Silk and Ron Maslyn Williams, as well as a moving description of Parer's romance with his wife of only a few months, Marie Elizabeth Cotter. The original foreword by Denis Warner, one of the few surviving witnesses of Parer's last hours, has been retained. Phillip Knightley, author of The First Casualty, contributes an afterword exploring the relevance of Parer's experiences to contemporary conflicts. Book jacket.