On Being a Photographer

I think that the problem with photography is that you can decontextualize [war]. What does a picture of a wounded body, or a mother clasping her wounded child mean? Why is it happening? I want to know that. I’m not satisfied just photographing little sorts of visual climaxes to a conflict. I want to know what led up to it and what’ going to happen next. I cannot believe in the sort of fireman approach to doing this kind of work – just automatically going to the next war not knowing where you are, what the background or the history is. It’s like watching a movie with the lights on and everybody talking. It seems to me that you’re losing such a valuable opportunity to learn the truth of what’s happening.

Philip Jones Griffiths: Born in Rhuddlan, Wales, in 1936 Griffiths was a practicing pharmacist before becoming a full time free-lance photographer in 1961. He was in Vietnam from 1966 to 1968, then returned in 1970 to complete work on his book Vietnam Inc., which was published in 1971. He has been a contributor to almost every major magazine in the world, and has worked in more than 120 different countries. He has been a full time member of Magnum since 1971.