Iceland review - 2015, Qupperneq 42

40 ICELAND REVIEW
dangerous situations, Jón says he tries to
understand all individuals on a human
level, including those who have threatened
to take his life. “These are often guys who
have not slept for a long time. They can
be very unpredictable but I’ve spent my
whole life looking for the bad guys and I
still haven’t found them. At the end of the
day, everyone just wants a better life,” Jón
says philosophically. He also tries not to let
negative experiences interfere with his love
of a country. “I was taken hostage in Yemen
but Yemen is [still] one of my favorite
places and some of these other places, like
the Central African Republic, can be great
too—in between the wars at least, other
times they’re terrible.”
WITNESSING HISTORY
Although he’s been covering disasters and
conflicts for almost four decades—he is
even known by some of his foreign col-
leagues as the ‘Master of Disaster,’—Jón
is adamant that he doesn’t seek them out.
“I’m never looking for war. This is just
part of what is happening in the world, so
I cover it. Others might say ‘no’ to such
assignments but to me it’s just work. And
when you’ve gone on one and come back
with the experience and no new holes in
your body, they tend to call you again. I feel
a bit like a sorcerer’s apprentice. I started
something I was unable to stop,” he says of
the demand for his services.
Witnessing history unfold first-hand
keeps him interested in the job. “It’s fas-
cinating to experience world history at its
source. Can you imagine, one day Libya is
closed to all media and the next I’m staring
at Gaddafi’s dead body? In war, at least in
the beginning, the anarchy gives you access
you never have elsewhere, you can sit in the
president’s office and consult his files, talk
to prisoners in their cells, and the wounded
on the operating table.”
In December last year The Economist
reported that an Icelandic citizen was
working as a filmmaker for the terrorist
organization IS in Syria, producing profes-
sional videos used to attract new recruits
and scare Western viewers. With Jón being
quite possibly the only Icelandic filmmaker
to have worked in Syria during the conflict,
could it have been a misunderstanding
involving him? “I heard about that [news]
but I don’t know who it is,” he responds.
“It’s very flattering [that people might think
it’s me] because the footage is good,” he
adds lightheartedly, later clarifying that he
hasn’t filmed the group, at least not since
they started calling themselves IS.
Another bizarre story involving terrorists
was when Jón had Bin Laden interview
tapes sent by FedEx to the workplace of his
partner Valérie. “I wasn’t in town so I had
to have them sent to her workplace. She’s a
manager at a Jewish bank in Geneva. When
the tapes arrived, the police were called and
the bank was put into lockdown.” The pro-
duction company in Los Angeles for which
he shot the interview had been having
problems converting the tapes so they sent
them back to him. “But the idiots marked
them ‘Interview Bin Laden.’ It took a while
to calm the situation down and explain that
the Bin Laden in question was not Osama
but his sister-in-law, author Carmen Bin
Laden.”
When he’s working as a cameraman in
the field, Jón says he’s usually accompa-
nied by three to four people, including
a fixer/interpreter, driver and journalist.
Traveling on an Icelandic passport can
have its pros and cons, he says. “I’ve had
colleagues who have been held because
they’re American, or even Danish after the
[Prophet] Muhammad drawings appeared,
but being Icelandic is very good in such
situations. However, I now also have a
Swiss passport. I don’t want to be a burden
on our small foreign office. The Swiss, on
the other hand, have the means to send in a
plane to evacuate us and have already done
so. Then it’s good to have a red passport
instead of a blue one so as not to be left
JOURNALISM
From above:
Setting up camp for the night in the
Central African Republic, 2010.
Traveling with the standard
“escort service” in Somalia, 2011.
The fall of Sirte,
Gaddafi’s hometown, Libya, 2011.
With rebels in
the Central African Republic, 2010.
...and the government forces
in the Central African Republic, 2010.
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