to control, so you’re not as safe because
you’re on your own and more vulnerable
to impromptu attacks and kidnapping.
It’s a different kind of concern..LGQDSSLQJKDVEHHQDFRQVWDQW
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It became a big issue in 2012 or 2013,
after a couple of years of the Syrian
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of different groups on the ground,
different armed militia and the
opposition splintered. Up until that point,
in Libya and Egypt and other places I had
worked in covering the beginnings of the
Arab Spring, you didn’t have to worry in
the same way. In Libya, you had to worry
DERXWUXQQLQJLQWR*DGGDÀ·VWURRSVDQG
being arrested by them. That happened to
a couple of people, but generally it ended
with them being released, not everyone,
but it was a different kind of threat. You
weren’t going to be kidnapped and sold
from one group to the next and probably
killed. That happened in Syria and was a
problem; a real wake-up call for some.+RZGLGWKDWDIIHFWWKHZD\
\RXFRXOGZRUN"
It meant that the story became
inaccessible and uncoverable for news
organizations – people weren’t willing
to send their folks in after that had
happened so many times. You also had
this shift where organizations wouldn’t
take their material from freelancers who
were working in that kind of environment
because it was deemed unethical to
support freelancers going into such a
dangerous place. That’s when that all
changed, in 2013, and it meant that the
Syrian civil war from the opposition side
was largely uncovered by outside media.
It was handed over to the brave young
Syrian photographers and activists who
were there and teaching themselves how
to document the events. That’s how we
got a lot of our pictures and stories out
of that part of the country for years.
But the north east where the Kurds
are in control is largely safe.%DFNWR\RXUURRWV\RXGLGWKH
IDPRXV8QLYHUVLW\RI6RXWK:DOHV
'RFXPHQWDU\3KRWRJUDSK\FRXUVHat Newport. What was the greatest
OHVVRQ\RXOHDUQWWKHQ"
I don’t know if I can single out a
particular lesson, but it was the general
ethos of the course. It was a brilliant
experience and I’m so glad I did it. I was
coming from a beginner’s level having
done a year-long general photography
portfolio building course in Dublin
VWUDLJKWDIWHU,ÀQLVKHGKLJKVFKRRO²WKH\
put me onto Newport when I decided I
wanted to do documentary photography.
It was something I believed in
straightaway and I didn’t look back.
It was so important to everything that I
do now, including forging my ideas and
values about documentary photography.+RZGLG\RXVWDUWZRUNLQJIRU
the New York Times"
It started in Mosul, when I was already
covering Iraq and pitching my work to
various people and trying to place it in
various magazines and newspapers.
I caught the attention of the New York
Times and it started from there. Next
thing I knew, they had me on assignment.:KDW\HDUZDVWKLV"
The beginning of 2017. The battle to
reclaim Mosul had started towards the
end of 2016 and I’d been there already for
a couple of months, based out of Irbil in
northern Iraq, and decided to follow the
story through. After a couple of months,
LQWKHPLGGOHRI-DQXDU\DVWKHÀUVW
phase of the operation was coming to
an end in the east of Mosul, I had this
RSSRUWXQLW\WRGRP\ÀUVWSLHFHZLWK
them. It was about the fall of the eastern
side of Mosul. That’s how it started: I
wrote the words and it went down well,
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times over the next year – throughout the
rest of the battle in western Mosul. I then
went to Raqqa in October 2017 and it
developed from there, following this story
on the downfall of ISIS. That’s been the
focus of what I have done for them.How strange was it when the New
York TimesDVNHG\RXWRZULWHYou’re not as safe
because you’re on your
own and more vulnerable
to impromptu attacks
and kidnapping
The Canon Magazine 69
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