‘Bright Light for Short Time’

The mother of a British photographer killed by a mob in Somalia paid tribute to her son as a “very bright light which shone for a short time.”

“He was an inspirational person. He was amazing. He was bright, he was funny, he was musical, and he was very brave and handsome.”

Her free-lance photographer son, Dan Eldon, was one of two news photographers killed in an attack Monday in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

Eldon, who held dual British-U.S. citizenship, had been covering the civil war in the country for the Reuters news agency since last year. His body was recovered by U.N. forces. He appeared to have been beaten with stones and rifle butts.

“He was no ordinary 22-year-old. He had a very lovely future ahead of him,” Kathy Eldon said. She is a London-based film producer currently working in Los Angeles. She said she spoke to her son only last week.

Apologizing for what would seem like bragging, Kathy Eldon described how successful her son had been. “He felt it was very important for the world to know what was going on in Somalia. He felt he had to be there.

“But he could have been a diplomat or a politician. Photography and journalism were just a route to somewhere else. He was very eclectic. He inspired other people,” she said.

Eldon was born in London in 1974. He attended the American School in London, where he was voted top student of his year, before leaving at the age of 8 to live in Kenya with his parents.

There he went to the International School in Nairobi and later studied at UCLA and at Richmond College in London.

In Mogadishu, he was known as the “mayor” because he knew so many people.

His mother is divorced from Dan’s father, Mike, who lives in Nairobi, but they are already planning together to celebrate their son’s life with an exhibition of his many different works in Nairobi.