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Image Not Available for [Shadowed man digging in soil is a former executioner for the dictator Samosa that the Sandinistas overthrew. He is working on a prison farm.]
[Shadowed man digging in soil is a former executioner for the dictator Samosa that the Sandinistas overthrew. He is working on a prison farm.]
Image Not Available for [Shadowed man digging in soil is a former executioner for the dictator Samosa that the Sandinistas overthrew. He is working on a prison farm.]

[Shadowed man digging in soil is a former executioner for the dictator Samosa that the Sandinistas overthrew. He is working on a prison farm.]

Creator Michael Mitchell (Canadian, 1943 - 2020)
Date1984
Mediumchromogenic print
DimensionsOverall: 50.8 × 40.6 cm (20 × 16 in.)
Mat: 71.1 × 55.9 cm (28 × 22 in.)
Credit LinePurchase, with funds donated by Rupert Duchesne and Holly Coll-Black, 2012
Category
Object number2012/25.1
Place DepictedNicaragua
LocationNot currently on display

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Image Not Available for [I walked many miles down the narrow no-man's land between the southern shore of Lake Nicaragua where the Sandinistas were dug into the beach a couple of hundred yards from the Costa Rican border where you could see the contras dodging from tree to tree. It was a very tense. At the eastern end of the walk we encountered this eleven year old boy who was fighting for the revolution with his father. Tough kid.]
[I walked many miles down the narrow no-man's land between the southern shore of Lake Nicaragua where the Sandinistas were dug into the beach a couple of hundred yards from the Costa Rican border where you could see the contras dodging from tree to tree. It was a very tense. At the eastern end of the walk we encountered this eleven year old boy who was fighting for the revolution with his father. Tough kid.]
Michael Mitchell
1984
Photograph
Image Not Available for [Mother and Child. Although I was supposed to be on a strict program and schedule I often conned the jeep driver and got him to stop at the houses of ordinary people. I'd knock on the door and interview them about their revolutionary experiences and do portraits. This is one of same from the southern outskirts of Managua. I was later hauled up before a military tribunal for doing this and had to be rescued by the Canadian ambassador in Costa Rica. I was asked at gunpoint to sign over control of all picture editing and caption writing to the Sandinistas. I refused, hence the diplomatic intervention.]
[Mother and Child. Although I was supposed to be on a strict program and schedule I often conned the jeep driver and got him to stop at the houses of ordinary people. I'd knock on the door and interview them about their revolutionary experiences and do portraits. This is one of same from the southern outskirts of Managua. I was later hauled up before a military tribunal for doing this and had to be rescued by the Canadian ambassador in Costa Rica. I was asked at gunpoint to sign over control of all picture editing and caption writing to the Sandinistas. I refused, hence the diplomatic intervention.]
Michael Mitchell
1984
Photograph
Image Not Available for [Former prostitute with sewing machine in a Sandinista rehabilitation program to train seamstresses.]
[Former prostitute with sewing machine in a Sandinista rehabilitation program to train seamstresses.]
Michael Mitchell
1984
Photograph
Image Not Available for [Little girl being thrown in the air at the moment Sandinista President Daniel Ortega announced that 16 year olds would have the vote in Nicaragua. Teens had argued that if they were old enough to fight in the revolution and die for it then they were old enough to vote.]
[Little girl being thrown in the air at the moment Sandinista President Daniel Ortega announced that 16 year olds would have the vote in Nicaragua. Teens had argued that if they were old enough to fight in the revolution and die for it then they were old enough to vote.]
Michael Mitchell
1984
Photograph
Image Not Available for [Two Sandinista soldiers in window of bombed building guard remains of Nicaragua's main oil port on the Pacific. Bombed by Reagan's contras a few days before.]
[Two Sandinista soldiers in window of bombed building guard remains of Nicaragua's main oil port on the Pacific. Bombed by Reagan's contras a few days before.]
Michael Mitchell
1984
Photograph
Image Not Available for [17 year old boy/man winds bullet belt across his shoulders as he goes into combat against the contras in Honduras for 20th time. It's dawn, he looks 40 but is only a kid. We'd had a very bad night sleeping with rats on the ground while being mortar-bombed all night. Awful.]
[17 year old boy/man winds bullet belt across his shoulders as he goes into combat against the contras in Honduras for 20th time. It's dawn, he looks 40 but is only a kid. We'd had a very bad night sleeping with rats on the ground while being mortar-bombed all night. Awful.]
Michael Mitchell
1984
Photograph
Image Not Available for Ydessa Hendeles
Ydessa Hendeles
Michael Mitchell
1994
Photograph
Image Not Available for [Sumo Indian girl (arms akimbo behind head) in village on Atlantic coast of Nica. I lobbied the revolutionary leaders for weeks to get permission and transport to the east coast. When they finally granted it the flight on ancient 1930s aircraft was terrifying. It basically crash landed on a grass strip on the coast and never flew again. We were shaken up but not injured. Once there I discovered I had miscalculated. No one spoke Spanish (just indigenous languages) so I couldn't do any interviews. Hence kids.]
[Sumo Indian girl (arms akimbo behind head) in village on Atlantic coast of Nica. I lobbied the revolutionary leaders for weeks to get permission and transport to the east coast. When they finally granted it the flight on ancient 1930s aircraft was terrifying. It basically crash landed on a grass strip on the coast and never flew again. We were shaken up but not injured. Once there I discovered I had miscalculated. No one spoke Spanish (just indigenous languages) so I couldn't do any interviews. Hence kids.]
Michael Mitchell
1984
Photograph
Image Not Available for [On Atlantic coast we had to stop on dirt road to wait for this cow to cross toward us on the bridge ahead of us. Bridge was mined and blew up. But for this cow it would have been us.]
[On Atlantic coast we had to stop on dirt road to wait for this cow to cross toward us on the bridge ahead of us. Bridge was mined and blew up. But for this cow it would have been us.]
Michael Mitchell
1984
Photograph
Image Not Available for Colophon from After the Triumph
Colophon from After the Triumph
Michael Mitchell
1984
Photograph
Image Not Available for [Nica's only fabric plant in country (Managua). State-owned antique plant spins the cotton from plantations near Pacific coast.]
[Nica's only fabric plant in country (Managua). State-owned antique plant spins the cotton from plantations near Pacific coast.]
Michael Mitchell
1984
Photograph
Image Not Available for Michael Snow
Michael Snow
Michael Mitchell
1994
Photograph
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