The magazine of the art-form of the photo-essay
“A free, really high quality photo-essay magazine. Fabulous!”
Stephen Fry. British actor, writer and film & documentary maker
Jan 2015 back issue
by James Hill
A 'walrus' or winter swimmer exited a frozen pool in the Silver Woods in Moscow, 17 February 1996.
A young man slept in the refrectory of a village church in the Tver region, Russia, on Easter Sunday, 27 April 1997.
During a demonstration by the newly formed special forces of the Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior; the Golden
Eagles; in Kiev; September 1992; a knife was dropped onto the bare stomach of a policeman.
Georgian refugees took shelter in the trees on the mountain pass between Abkhazia and Georgia after fleeing
Sukhumi and other Abkhaz cities after Abkhaz forces had defeated Georgian government troops. October 1993.
A mother wept at the funeral of her son at Martyrs' Lane in Baku, Azerbaijan. Her son had been killed in the
conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh. November 1993.
An acrobat at the Old Circus, Moscow, November 1997.
Tonarotti pulled in a bluefin tuna during a mattanza off the island of Favignana near Sicily, 10 June 1999.
A man and woman went through the barren mountains of Badakhshan Province in Northern Afghanistan, one of
those most deeply affected by the recent drought, on their way to the town of Kemish in the area controlled by the
Northern Alliance. October 2001.
A man fed the doves of the shrine of Azrat Ali in the city of Mazar-i Sharif where the spirit of Ali, the son of the
prophet Mohammad is kept. Twenty pairs of doves were orignally brought to the shrine in the sixteenth century by
Sultan Hussein Byeqra from Nejev, in modern day Iraq, where Ali is buried. The doves, known locally as Azrat's
army, and as symbols of peace are according to the current mullah of the mosque, the first to leave when fighting
breaks out, a frequent occurence, and the last to return. 30 November 2001.
Forces of the Northern Alliance. 28 November 2001.
An F-16 pilot descended over the Turkish-Iraqi border after refuelling and headed into Iraq on a mission for
Operation Northern Watch, 22 January 2003.
During a sand storm in the Al Zubair Desert in Southern Iraq a US Marine clung onto his packet of Skittles as he
and his fellow troops waited out storm during the Allied advance on Baghdad. 25 March 2003.
In School No. 6 in Beslan, two boys stood in an empty
corridor as the school term began in the town two weeks
after the nearby School No. I had been captured by
terrorists resulting in a a torrid battle for those taken
hostage which left more than 300 dead, more than half of
them children.
Alphonso Stewart and Khrist Newman, "The Positive
Brothers", acrobats and street artists, in Battery Park
where they regularly perform. 12 November 2008
The body of Pope John Paul II was carried aloft on its way to lie in state inside the Basilica of St. Peter's for public
viewing, two days after his death. 4 April 2005.
A girl, having been dropped off on the main road nearby, walked towards the village of Butyrki in the Lipetsk
region. 14 July 2008.
At Las Ventas, the bullfighting stadium of the Spanish capital Madrid, during the festival of San Isidro, the main
bullfighting festival of the year in Spain, the bullfighter Gabriel Picazo used his capote to make the bull pass tightly
across his body. 16 May 2010.
Sylvie Armand-Delille photographed in Umbria, 13 August 1998.
When I look at a photography book, I am often left wanting more, for even if
my curiosity is satisfied visually, there usually remains something unclear
or unsaid about the work and the photographer.
Experiences, in particular extreme ones, are often causes for reticence. My
own father served in the Parachute Regiment and steadfastly refused to
talk about his military career even when I tried to engage him after I too had
been to war, albeit in a very different capacity.
In Somewhere Between War and Peace I felt not only obliged to discuss
these emotions, wishing not simply to explain my feelings and my way of
seeing in words but also attempting to define for myself the complicated
and shifting relationship to these moments.
Images are not easy companions to live with. For all those that bring a smile
to my face there are many others still causing me anguish, years after they
were taken. It has proved far harder than I ever imagined to piece together
the kaleidoscope of the past.
