Book tracks last days of photographer Tom

Published: 2 December, 2010
by DAN CARRIER

THE last weeks of Tufnell Park photographer Tom Hurndall, who was shot dead by an Israeli Defence Force soldier, are the basis of a new book, launched on the eve of what would have been the student’s 29th birthday.

Tom was shot in the head by the sniper in April 2003 as he took pictures and worked as a volunteer for the International Solidarity Movement. He never regained consciousness and died nine months later. 

His dad Anthony, who along with Tom’s mother Jocelyn unveiled the book, The Only House Left Standing – The Journals of Tom Hurndall, at the Arab-British Chamber of Commerce in Mayfair on Friday, said editing the journal and sifting through Tom’s photographs had been a joyful experience – despite the pain of losing their son.

“This has not been hard – for us, it is in these words and pictures that he lives on,” said Mr Hurndall. “I loved helping compile this. It says to me, this is what he was doing. I speak to him through these pictures, and it brings him alive again.”

The journal begins in Baghdad, where the Tom had gone on the eve of the second Gulf war to chronicle the stories of a group of peace activists who wanted to dissuade the British and American government’s from attacking civilian areas. He then travelled through Jordan to Israel, and began taking photographs in Gaza. 

Mr Hurndall said: “He had difficulty getting every photograph out, because of the places he was travelling through. He hid a lot of his work, and knew where he was concealing it, but after he was shot, no one else knew his plans. Finding all of his photographs was hard.”

Mr Hurndall recalled feeling nervous when his son set off for one of the most dangerous regions in the world: “I was nervous, but this was Tom – he was going to produce a collection of work he could do something with, and that is what this is about. His notebook has been fascinating to read and we enjoyed putting his photographs alongside his diary entries – this is his story.”

The parents had previously organised an exhibition of Tom’s works at the journalists’ club, Frontline, but Mr Hurndall said the book was a different matter. 

“The publishers’ approach has been different to ours,” he said. “Trolley Books want to use it to tell Tom’s story, to use the journals to complement the pictures, rather than as an exhibition of his best pictures. They show his story as he travelled.”

It includes an introduction by veteran Middle East journalist Robert Fisk, and a foreword by actor Alan Rickman, who writes: “Opening the pages of this book is like opening the doors on Tom Hurndall’s life and conscience, and being there. indispensable.”