Credible Witness
Join renowned photojournalists Muhammed Muheisen, Giles Clarke, Jodi Cobb, Tommy Trenchard and former Sunday Times picture editor Ray Wells in conversation with Aidan Sullivan as they share some of their experiences of the most compelling and dangerous stories of our time.
Photojournalists play a vital role in documenting and bringing attention to the darker aspects of our world, often risking their own safety in pursuing important stories. They serve as our eyes in the darkness and use powerful images to shed light on important issues and inspire change.
Unfortunately, support for photojournalism has disappeared, along with many traditional media outlets that once provided financial assistance. Even those that remain often avoid offering insurance and long-term support due to their risk-averse nature.
Despite these challenges, Muheisen, Clarke, Cobb, and Trenchard remain dedicated photojournalists who continue to take risks and put themselves in harm’s way to report on important stories. They run towards danger rather than away from it, but at what cost? It is said that bearing witness to traumatic events can take a toll on an individual, leaving them with pieces of those experiences forever. How do photojournalists survive and cope with the accumulative nature of these demanding events? Why do they endure such challenges to bring these important stories to light?
- Moderator: Aidan J Sullivan
- Duration: 75 min
Date
- 09 Feb 2023
- Expired!
Time
- 19:00 - 20:15
Speakers
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Giles ClarkeGiles Clarke is a photojournalist focusing on capturing the human face of current and post-conflict issues throughout the world. Since 2017, Clarke has been working closely with UN/OCHA on awareness campaigns in war-torn Yemen and the Sahel region of central Africa.
Clarke began his film and photography career in West Berlin as a 16mm camera assistant at the height of the Cold War during the mid-1980s before switching to a successful professional black-and-white photographic printer career in London and New York. In 1997, Clarke worked in the Richard Avedon darkroom in New York on some now-iconic fashion campaigns.
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Jodi CobbJodi Cobb’s trailblazing career spans four decades as a staff field photographer for National Geographic, the only woman to hold that position in its history. She has travelled through sixty-five countries, breaking gender and cultural barriers to document people and places on the edge of momentous change in some of the world’s most complex, impenetrable environments.
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Muhammed MuheisenMuhammed Muheisen is a world-renowned photographer. A two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner, a National Geographic photographer, founder and chairman of the Dutch non-profit organization Everyday Refugees Foundation, Global Ambassador for Jordan Tourism Board, Royal Jordanian Airlines and Canon. Named in 2013 by TIME Magazine as Best Wire Photographer. For over a decade he has been documenting the refugee crisis around the world.
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Tommy TrenchardTommy Trenchard is an independent photographer documenting human stories from around the world for a broad range of international magazines, newspapers and humanitarian organisations. The focus of his work ranges widely from conflict, humanitarian crises and social injustice to traditional cultures and artisanal livelihoods across the globe.
He began his freelance career over a decade ago after moving to Freetown, Sierra Leone, where he stayed for the next four years documenting that country’s long road to recovery after a decade of conflict during the 1990s. Whilst in West Africa he also covered the devastating 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak, and the desperate international fight to control it.
