If you’ve not yet seen VII – The Magazine, launched a couple of weeks ago, it’s well worth a look. As you might expect from one of the world’s leading photo agencies, there are some fine photo stories from some of its 29 photographers posted already, and obviously many more to follow.
But perhaps the most interesting piece so far is an interview with Ashley Gilbertson who worked largely on assignment for The New York Times in Iraq from 2002 until 2008 and was in 2004 awarded the Robert Capa Gold Medal for his work in Falluja by the Overseas Press Club.
If you click on the image of his mobile, a popup window will open with a warning that the story contains graphic imagery and language. It does. He talks candidly about the death of Billy Miller, the marine assigned to protect him was killed while he was photographing in Falluja and the affect it had on him. Since then he has looked at the emotional impact war has on the soldiers and their families and the problems faced by those who do come back.
I had some problems with the player software on my system using Firefox but it worked fine when I made the player full-screen. I found the series of black and white panoramic images of the rooms at home of soldiers who had been killed particularly moving, along with a couple of the portraits of those who had returned and were obviously very much affected by what they had seen and done.
Very powerful, timely as I am about to visit the McCullin exhibition at the Imperial War Museum North. Another conflict in another generation what has changed?
(No problems on Safari BTW)