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and I think it was part of the stipulation
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shoot in black and white and start from
the very beginnings. Only when you had
mastered those were you allowed to start
experimenting more. It was really smart,
because shooting black and white,
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your own pictures is the most intuitive
way to learn how photography and light
work. That stayed with me and as I
progressed I started using medium format
colour. All that early work in the Balkans
and even half the work I did in Egypt and
Libya during the Arab Spring was all shot
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It was 6x6. Square. I think even though
I shoot mostly digital now I’ve kept that
medium format aesthetic and medium
format way of thinking. For composition
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from using medium format, being careful
about composition and keeping lines
straight, that’s the kind of aesthetic I was
interested in for years. I only changed out
of necessity. If I could have my way I’d
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07The Canon Magazine 71
IVOR PRICKETT
UNKNOWN SURVIVOR
Used as a suspected human shield, this
young boy was saved by Iraqi special forces
One of the hardest things to comprehend
about the war in Iraq and Syria is the use of
civilian ‘human shields’ by ISIS fighters to
protect themselves as they move from one
position to the next. In this photograph,
taken in July 2017, Iraqi special forces carefor an unidentified young boy who was
carried out of the last ISIS controlled area of
Mosul’s old city by a man suspected of being a
militant. Ivor explains: “The soldiers believed
the man had used the boy as a human shield
in order to try and escape as he did not know
the child’s name and claimed that he had just
found him walking alone in the street. One
of the soldiers agreed to adopt the young
boy, given that they knew nothing about
him and he didn’t speak.”STORY BEHIND THE SHOT