War Photographs: A small example of images I created during 11 years of work as a War Correspondent.

Most of these images were hand-printed by me. I was a member of a group referred to as "concerned photographers" during the eighties and nineties that chose to file the edge of the negative carrier down in their Enlargers, so as to print the entire area of the negative. This technique is used to show the viewer that what we saw, you see. It is a discipline that seperates the "I'll crop a decent image out of it in the darkroom" cheats and those altruistic photographers devoted to the purity and honesty of their craft. It is all about truth from the get go!

ABSDF: All Burma Student's Democratic Front; When I met this boy on the 8th of March 1992, he told me he was 11 years old. I found his little body battered and torn on the 9th of March 1992, he had 12 wounds.

ABSDF: The man crouching on the left is Platoon Sargeant; he was a Technical Studies teacher in Rangoon (Yangon); the boys on the right are his students, now they are his soldiers.

KNLAF: Karen National Liberation Armed Forces: This boy I found in the field hospital of Manerplaw Head Quarters on the banks of the Salween River. The Médecins Sans Frontières Surgeons told me the wounds were caused by an "aggressive combustible accelerant" – Napalm. This was graphic evidence that the Junta in Rangoon was using illegal weapons in their war of oppression.

TWE PA WE-JO: The Sleeping Dog Hill; looking back from the forward spur which protrudes into Burmese held ground about 700 metres, As a Burmese 150mm Artillery shell strike the summit. The dense shrubbery you can see in the middle-distance is the Front-line. The reason for this geographical anomaly is the incredibly steep sides of the mountain and spur-line. 10 to 12 metres either side of the spur-line is an almost sheer jungle gradient, which requires hand over hand crawling to scale. The gradient cannot be discerned from this photograph.

  

KNLAF: This Karen Commando is about to fire upon approaching Burmese soldiers as they appear over the edge of the steep sides of the Spur-line. ( Most of  the negatives I created during my career were destroyed as the result of a domestic dispute, including a small folder containing my best negatives and transparencies; during a period of seperation from my second ex-wife. Doh!)

Coup d'etat in the Philippines: Lumbia Airport on the outskirts of Cagayan D'Oro on the southern Island of Mindinao: This young Marine is pensive as he sits with his comrades while they are told they will be leading the first assault wave during the dawn attack against the rebel held Army instalation called 'Camp Evangelista'. He was killed  in the first five minutes, I tried to find him in vain. I usually try to stay close to the kids that I feature in my stories.

ANKI: Armée National Kampucea Independent: Cambodian guerrillas loyal to the Monarchy these Sihanoukist guerrillas caused the Vietnamese backed regime some serious grief. Trained by the SAS (Thatcher denies it, duh) in small weapons and tactics, demolition and a whole gamut of nasty tactics. This particularly amicable looking chap was my body-guard. (original image; scanned colour print)

N.B: LOVE LIGHT & PEACE!