Meet the OPC Members: Q&A With Tanya Bindra

By Amy Russo

Tanya Bindra is a freelance photographer and filmmaker based in Brooklyn. For the last five years, she has reported on conflict, postcolonial politics, and migration in over 20 countries across West Africa, South Asia, and Europe. Her work has been published Newsweek, The Washington Post, The Associated Press, UNICEF and others. In 2016 she won the inaugural Ali Mustafa Memorial Award for People’s Journalism.

Hometown: A bit complicated – Chur, Switzerland (place of birth), Oakville, Canada (growing up) and Randolph, NJ (where I went to high school), and a few other countries in between.

Education: I studied international development and gender studies at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

Languages you speak: I speak French and German (though it’s more Swiss-German than German).

First job in journalism: Filing photos for the AP during election protests and riots in Senegal.

Countries reported from: The Philippines, Mali, India, Nigeria, Central African Republic, the U.S., Italy, Greece, Germany, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Canada, Senegal, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Ethiopia, Mauritania, a few more…

Year you joined the OPC: 2017.

How did you become interested in reporting from West Africa?

My father’s family is part of the South Asian diaspora in East Africa, so in school I was always interested in learning about the continent. I started gravitating towards West Africa though through music and film. I loved films by Abderrahmane Sissako, Djibril Diop Mambéty, Ousmane Sembène, and I loved music from Mali and Guinea Bissau, so I went. I didn’t plan on becoming a journalist or a photographer. I would also say that my interest in reporting from West Africa, and other regions more generally, is also a function of not having a particularly rooted idea of where I am from or who I am culturally. My parents are from two very different cultures. They grew up in different countries than me. They have lived abroad all of their adult lives and now so have I.

Major challenge as a journalist: Staying in a place long enough to start understanding the nuances of everyday life while maintaining fresh eyes.

Worst experience as a journalist: Falling into a river of sewage while filming, eating fish in the desert (my fault) and getting sick while on a military patrol, routinely having to unpack my big bag of equipment and dirty socks in front of security agents at small airports. More seriously, losing colleagues to the job, finding myself after a job.

Hardest story: Covering Ebola in Sierra Leone and Liberia. I think it’s important for journalists to be mindful of the stereotypes that exist about the region when covering conflict or emergencies here, and to not perpetuate them. It was necessary to cover the scale of human suffering during Ebola but it was also important to find narratives that dug a bit deeper. I was most proud of a little story done for The Washington Post on clubbing in a small town in Liberia during the peak of the outbreak. There was a curfew at 11:00 p.m., patrons had to disinfect their hands with chlorine before entering the club, but an 18-year old girl still celebrated her birthday with friends.

Journalism heroes: There are many journalists I admire but I will mention photographers who work in the documentary/photojournalist vein. Carolyn Drake, Raghubir Singh, Glenna Gordon, Harry Gruyaert, Emilie Regnier, Guy Tillim, and Stephen Shore are a few that come to mind, whose photos I keep coming back to and who make me want to go out and find my own.

Advice for journalists who want to work overseas: Question why you really want to go where you want to go, make peace with it, then decide. If you go, become an expert.

Dream job: Making experimental documentary art films…

Favorite quote: “Death would not be called bad, O people, if one knew how to truly die.” – Guru Nanak

Most common mistake you’ve seen: Reportage guided by ego.

Country you most want to return to: Now? And to report from? Since elections last year, the United States.

Twitter handle: @tanyabindra but more active on Instagram: @tanyakbindra