Craig March 20th, 2008
Renowned photojournalist Philip Jones Griffiths succumbed to cancer at his home on Wednesday morning. He was 72.
Born in North Wales, he switched from pharmacy to full time photography in 1961, working for The Observer. In 1965,working for Magnum, he arrived in Vietnam, although he found it difficult to sell his images as they concentratedon the suffering of the Vietnamese people caused by the war. Low on funds, he managed to get a scoop with photos of Jacqueline Kennedy accompanied by a British aristocrat rumored to be her love interest, in Cambodia in 1967. Sales of these pictures allowed him to continue working in Vietnam, which resulted in the publication of the book “Vietnam Inc”, widely regarded as a classic of photojournalism.
As well as Vietnam, he also covered the Algerian War (prior to Vietnam), the Yom Kippur War, Cambodia before the Khmer Rouge took over, served for five years as president of Magnum and returned to Vietnam in the 1990s to document the effects of Agent Orange and a series about Vietnam at peace.
In the words of Henri Cartier-Bresson, “not since Goya has anyone portrayed war like Philip Jones Griffiths.”
Never married, he is survived by two daughters.
A very good series of interviews from 2002 can be found at Musarium and one from 2005 is at The Digital Journalist.
Tags: obituary, Philip Jones Griffiths
Craig March 5th, 2008
A story about the San-zhr pods has just been published over at File Magazine. 14 of my images were used in the story, so go and take a look. And check out the other parts of File - there’s some great photography there.
Craig October 2nd, 2007
The Daniel Pearl World Music Days was created in response to the 2002 kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl at the hands of extremists in Karachi, Pakistan. Danny’s family and friends came together to work towards a more humane world, forming the Daniel Pearl Foundation, whose mission is to promote cross-cultural understanding through journalism, music, and dialogue.
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Craig September 27th, 2007
September 28 marks the anniversary of the birth of the great Chinese scholar and philosopher Confucius. Beginning at dawn, Confucius temples hold elaborate ceremonies to honor the occasion. Unlike other temples, this is the only day of the year that ceremonies are held in a Confucius temple. The following pictures are from the Confucius temple in Changhua. The day is also celebrated as Teacher’s Day.
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Craig July 31st, 2007
The BBC have an audio slideshow up at the moment, with commentary from three Associated Press (AP) photographers. Horst Faas, twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize, achieved fame with his pictures of the Vietnam War; Oded Balilty, an Israeli photographer who won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News, and AP’s global director of photography, Santiago Lyon. It’s an interesting show that runs for about four minutes.
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As an aside, I recently saw Balilty’s prize winning image at the World Press Photos exhibition in Taipei. Like all good images, it really needs to be seen large to fully appreciate.
