tsgf.co.uk

Photographer: Joao Silva

An interesting debate on war photography

A few days ago, Duckrabbit posted an argument that War Photographers, especially contemporary ones, tend to write about their own experiences when on assignment.  This lead to VII photographer Christopher Morris to provide a counter statement and a further response from Asim Rafiqui.

Safe to say, the whole affair is rather interesting.  Check it out.

Year after year, decade after decade photographers have documented war. Rarely are they in the news, rarely do they become the story. For a generation now they have provided a glimpse into humankind at it’s worse. They have done so at great personal sacrifice, they have set out to do this work for a multitude of personal reasons.

Christopher Morris

It was over before it even started.

After some very passionate demonstrations during the Student Day X protests and the March for the Alternative on March 26th, the Public Sector Strikes did not live up to expectations, evaporating into thin air just as quickly as they began.  

Peaceful protests rarely make it into the news, which is why yesterdays will fade into the background without making impact in Westminster.  I can’t even find it on the BBC website today.  I guess the disappointment comes from the fact the Unions were talking about an ongoing protest that would last until their voice was heard and accounted for. This was obviously all talk.

Anarchists obviously decided to tag along to the event, and at one point even went looking for trouble up Whitehall.  Their eagerness was their eventual undoing as they walked straight into a line of waiting police, and, with their numbers being fairly small, were quickly dealt with by a surprisingly efficient police containment; trouble makers systematically identified and removed from the crowd one by one before they were even aware of it. 

To quote Mr. Blonde, I can just imagine the ministers in Westminster asking the Unions: ”Are you going to bark all day, little doggie, or are you going to bite?”

John D McHugh: ‘We ran behind a Humvee… by that point I’d accepted that I was going to get shot – there were so many bullets in the air, it sounded like a swarm of bees.’ Photograph: John D McHugh/Getty Images

I chanced across this article by the Guardian, and thought it incredibly interesting.  The title is pretty self explanatory, from the eyes of a war photographer.  Click on the picture to read other stories from the article.  A worthy read.

This is the last picture I took before I got shot. I’d been embedded with US troops in Nuristan for five weeks when we went to help a unit that had been ambushed nearby. There were bodies on the road, dead and dying. Taliban started shooting down on us from the mountains. I jumped behind a rock. I could hear bullets hitting it, and thought, “Oh fuck, oh fuck.”

We ran behind a Humvee, but now we were being fired on from both sides. By that point I’d accepted that I was going to get shot. There were so many bullets in the air, it sounded like a swarm of bees. They had us pinned down and a sniper was picking people off one by one.

The bullet went through my ribs and out of my lower back. It felt as if I’d been punched. I fell to my knees, but managed to get behind another rock. The entry wound was the size of a penny; the exit bigger than the palm of my hand. The pain was overwhelming. I was convinced I was going to die and felt angry with myself. Then I started worrying that I might live but end up paralysed. Maybe I was better off dead? My mind refocused and I thought, “No, fuck that!”

It was 25 minutes before anybody could get to me. My cameras were on the ground, and as they grabbed me I had to lean down and pick them up. When we got to the local base, a medic said, “Hell, I can see right through you.” As soon as I knew that I’d recover, I told my girlfriend I was going to go back out. The work I do is important and also, if I hadn’t, it would mean I’d never really understood the risks in the first place.