VIVID TALKS TO ... THE LIFE OF A WAR PHOTOGRAPHER, “ALONE/WITH SPOOLS OF SUFFERING LAID OUT IN ORDERED ROWS”, IS A FASCINATING ONE. LAURIE COLDWELL SPEAKS TO GARY KNIGHT, RENOWNED AND CELEBRATED WAR PHOTOGRAPHER, ABOUT THE STRUGGLES AND SUCCESSES. AS A WAR JOURNALIST, YOU GO INTO AREAS THAT MOST PEOPLE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULDN’T CHOOSE TO GO. WHAT MAKES YOU DO THAT? First of all, I don’t really classify myself as a war journalist. It’s not the only thing I do, but I suppose the reason for going was escape. I come from the West Midlands. My parents were middle class, led ordinary middle class lives and I was terrified I would be forever trapped in the middle of Middle Class England. About the age of 14-15, I came across a book by Tim Page. It was a collection of photographs of Vietnam. And this guy had gone off on the hippy trail and ended up in Vietnam and had managed to earn a living out of these great photos. At the time, I was very politically motivated – I was in the CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) – and as a student of history, there was sort of a romantic notion of adventure about it. It represented everything I wanted: to fulfil an adventurous life, to follow my political motivations, address evils, take on governments and maybe make a bit of money. It meant I could escape. That’s how it started. To a degree, those motives still exist for me, but more mature – refined. Principally, I don’t need adventures any
more and I’ve no need to run away. What I’m not interested in doing is addressing issues that don’t need fixing. Conflicts need fixing. It gives me a strong sense of purpose. Photographing under those circumstances is like playing sport. Everything’s moving so fast. It makes it so difficult. But when you get it so right there’s a feeling of perfection. And getting it right, is not just the picture, it’s getting through barriers put up by governments, police, soldiers; it’s getting past the obstacles put in your way to get that picture.
DO YOU STRUGGLE, THEN, TO FIND A BALANCE BETWEEN YOUR AESTHETIC SENSIBILITIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES AND YOUR JOURNALISTIC ONES? Anyone can take a photograph. They can record the event and that’s useful. What I want to do is engage the audience in a compelling and provocative way with a more sophisticated understanding. I’m challenged to use the aesthetics to draw in the audience but there’s a fine line. To be drawn only by the aesthetic, I think, can be incredibly self-indulgent.
EDDIE ADAMS [PULITZER PRIZE WINNING PHOTOJOURNALIST IN THE VIETNAM WAR –
HIS PHOTO OF A GENERAL EXECUTING A PRISONER IS ONE OF THE MOST RECOGNISED AND POWERFUL PHOTOS OF THAT CONFLICT] SAID THAT: “STILL PHOTOGRAPHS ARE THE MOST POWERFUL WEAPON IN THE WORLD. PEOPLE BELIEVE THEM, BUT PHOTOGRAPHS…ARE ONLY HALF-TRUTHS” DOES YOUR WORK MAKE YOU INCLINED TO AGREE WITH HIM? No, what I would say is that information is the most powerful [weapon]. What photography can achieve is very important, but photography is a very complex medium. It can be understood by the uneducated and it’s a universal language - everyone can get something out of it. It does mislead, though. What you leave out and what you make the decision to include can be just as important. There a famous set of advertising by Don McCullin. It’s a series of four pictures and in the first, you see a hoodie running and then in the second you see that the hoodie is running after an old lady and you form different opinions. In the third you see a policeman running after the hoodie, which confirms the thought that the hoodie is after the old woman, but in the fourth, you see that