Remembering Kim Wall, the Journalist We All Hope to Be Like

Swedish journalist Kim Wall’s classmates remember her as a curious and high spirited soul they all wish to be like.

A heartfelt blog piece in memory of journalist Kim Wall. 

Photo courtesy: Facebook/Kim Wall

New York: Arm in arm, classmates of the Columbia Journalism School Batch of 2013 gathered on the steps outside the school. As the candles in their hands flickered, they lifted their voices in a song to celebrate Kim Wall’s life.

"I won't cry, I won't cry, no I won't shed a tear
Just as long as you stand, stand by me.”

A candle lit vigil for Kim Call at the Columbia School of Journalism. Photo courtesy: Aakriti Thapar

Kim Wall, the Swedish journalist who died while reporting on a Danish submarine inventor earlier this month, was remembered by her professors, friends and colleagues at a vigil last night. Friends cried, stories were exchanged and those who knew and didn't know Wall, found solace in solidarity and hugs.

Yesterday, the police confirmed that a torso found on a beach in Copenhagen, belonged to Wall.

Also Read: Sunk Submarine, Headless Body: Mystery of Kim Wall’s Death Deepens

Wall had worked on a number of stories for The New York Times, Vice, TIME, among other publications. She traveled to different places and often covered stories that were below the radar.

Michael Ip, a freelance photographer and editor, met Wall in Barcelona, after she found him on a Facebook group called "Journo Housing Exchange". "She was doing a story on the feminist porn industry in Barcelona,” he said. “I didn't even know that existed! But as people are saying, she had a knack for finding stories that people hadn't done before".

A notice for the Kim Wall vigil.Photo courtesy: Aakriti Thapar

Ip said that Wall seemed very safety conscious when reporting, and described how she’d traveled to a photo shoot in the mountains with one of the actresses she was profiling.

She goes up there and sees all these big, gruff men … she immediately didn’t feel safe. She sent me a text saying ‘Hey you know this area better than I do, can I send you my location? And if you don’t hear from me in a couple of hours, call the police or something’. She had done stories all over, in some places that might not necessarily be dangerous, but I wouldn’t call them safe places either. What an anti-climatic assignment for this to happen to her you know.

Michael Ip, Freelance Phographer and Kim Wall’s friend

Matthew Claiborne, one of Wall’s classmates at the journalism school, described Kim as a "total rockstar”.

You could hear from fellow classmates, that whenever they stumbled upon a cool article, they would be like ‘wow this is really cool!’, and Lo and behold, it would be written by Kim.

Matthew Claiborne, Kim Wall’s former classmate

Claiborne first interacted with Wall when he found her missing laptop charger in graduate school. Remembering Wall as a friend, Claiborne said, "She was such a bright light, always a ray of sunshine, always smiling. When she would talk to me, I felt like I was the only person in the room, which was really nice. You felt self assured and confident around her. Kind of a rare quality that she had.

She did quirky stories. Interesting stories that humanise people. I didn’t know her as well as the others did, but I had one significant interaction with her. She wanted me to critique a story she had worked on about plus sized pole dancers. You know what I mean, those were the kind of stories she did. I thought she was cool! She was dope! After that, when anybody would bring Kim up, I would be like - Yo, she’s so cool right? She’s so cool!

Salima Korama, Kim Wall’s classmate

Keira Huang and Wall got their first jobs together after graduating from the journalism school. Referring to Wall in present tense, Huang said, "Kim is very diligent and aggressive, in a very good way. She is a reporter that we wish we could be. What I remember the most is she was very adventurous, free spirited in the curiosity that she had. That's a role model for whoever wants to be a journalist".

Candles lit in memory of Kim Wall by her former classmates at Columbia Journalism School . Photo courtesy: Aakriti Thapar

Attendees at last night’s vigil said they were in disbelief when they first heard of the news. “My friend texted me and then I was like this is not real”, said Huang. “I was like they’re making a mistake you know. She might be just somewhere, she was missing so.. I just thought it was not real. I was like ‘Oh Come on!’ It would be a different story some days later, but this happened.”

The memorial service brought Wall’s friends and colleagues together from different parts of the world. Those who not present at the event were able to pay their respects via a live stream on a private Facebook event that was created for remembering Kim. While echoing what Wall’s classmates had to say, Claiborne said, "I'm hoping that what comes from this is awareness, safety and security for journalists. You know, so that our rights are protected , we keep ourselves in safe spaces, we look out for each other , we love one another, kind of what we saw tonight. People will be working on a type of scholarship/fund for female freelance journalists like Kim. That’s what I hope comes of it".

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