The War We See

In this episode, I’m joined by Dr Pippa Oldfield, a photography curator and historian specialising in gender and conflict. Pippa is Programme Consultant at Impressions Gallery, a not-for-profit centre for photography based in Bradford, and an Honorary Fellow at Teesside University, Middlesbrough. She has curated major exhibitions including Bringing the War Home, No Man’s Land: Women’s Photography and the First World War, and Lee Miller: A Life Less Ordinary. Pippa is the author of several influential books on war photography, including Photography and War (2019), and is currently working on an exciting new book investigating gender and photography in wartime that spans the American Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, and the Second World War.

In our conversation, we explore how women have experienced and photographed war, the gendered constraints that have shaped their opportunities, and the enduring masculine archetype of the war photographer. We also ask a more fundamental question: what actually counts as ‘war photography’? Drawing on Pippa’s extensive experience working with a rich historical and cultural breadth of photographic sources, we discuss the decline of the iconic war photograph, and how the category can be expanded beyond the conventional battlefield image to include the home front, as well as everyday photographic practices.

Pippa's website: https://pippaoldfield.myportfolio.com

Pippa’s book Photography and War: https://reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/photography-and-war

Melanie Friend’s book The Home Front: https://www.dewilewis.com/products/the-home-front

The exhibition No Man’s Land: Women’s Photography and the First World War  at Impressions Gallery: https://www.impressions-gallery.com/event/no-mans-land/

Photo links

1. Photo 1: Hawk T1 military trainer, Dawlish Air Show, Devon, 2010 - From the series The Home Front © Melanie Friend 

https://melaniefriend.com/the-home-front (This photo is number eleven in the horizonal sequence of images)

2. Photo 2: Unidentified woman wearing mourning brooch and displaying framed image of unidentified soldier; Library of Congress; Hand coloured tintype. 

https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.37192/

3. Photo 3: Mairi Chisholm, page spread from one of Mairi Chisholm’s photo-albums, undated. Courtesy of National Library of Scotland. Album: Photography and War, p.44; British Art Studies.

https://britishartstudies.ac.uk/issues/08/no-mans-land (Figure 8, left hand side of the double-page spread)

This week, I'm joined by photographer and artist Giles Price, whose work blends photography, machine vision technologies, and aerial imaging, encouraging viewers to view war from a completely unique perspective. In this fascinating conversation, we discuss Giles' own military experiences photographing the Gulf War and reflect on how technologies of seeing have transformed over the three decades since that war. We explore the increasingly blurred boundaries between photography, mapping, and machine vision through his drone and photogrammetry practice, considering how these technologies are reshaping the production as well as the interpretation of conflict imagery.

At the centre of our conversation is Phantom Pro, Giles' remarkable long-term project examining the aftermath and reconstruction of Mosul following the battle to defeat the Islamic State. Drawing on thousands of aerial images captured by consumer drone technologies, the project offers a striking meditation on war, memory, and reconstruction, while evoking important questions about the relationship between photography and data in contemporary visual culture.

We also discuss synthetic imagery, image authentication, and the challenges posed by AI-generated visuals at a moment when photographs can no longer be taken at face value. From the material realities of making images in conflict zones to the future of visual documentation itself, Giles offers a thoughtful and nuanced perspective on how emerging technologies are changing what it means to witness war through images.

Phantom Pro has been selected to be shown at Impact Kyiv: War/Conflict Photography Forum in October: https://www.uhop.org.ua/forum

Giles’ website: https://www.gilesprice.com

Links to Giles’ selected photographs:

https://sotonac-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/ha4g21_soton_ac_uk/IQB1s76mKqoFRINOHyxSzDJRAQUNlLPj573_RlqJel0mm8s?e=yjkxTX

(The last photo discussed, of an FPV kill shot from the war in Ukraine, is not included due to its sensitive nature)

For the first episode of a brand new season of The War We See, I'm joined by Dr Katy Parry, Professor of Media and Politics at the University of Leeds, whose research explores how conflict and politics are communicated, performed, and understood through visual culture. Katy's fascinating work on representations of war ranges from her enduring interest in media framing of military photography, as well as her incredibly varied work on the ways soldiers and military veterans represent themselves and are portrayed in popular media. In this insightful and wide-ranging conversation, we discuss British press coverage of the Iraq War, how military actors self-represent visually, and fast-moving developments in contemporary war imagery, including the arrival of AI-generated war visuals. Our conversation considers how visual representations do far more than depict war - they communicate key narratives, offer military actors a mode of expression, and influence what audiences believe they are seeing.

Links to Katy’s selected photographs (in order of discussion):

1. DALL-E 3 AI-generated image in response to the ‘create an image of a refugee’ prompt: https://air.unimi.it/retrieve/5a3e63d4-8843-4144-a2a9-7fe94c61d960/Chap3%20Parry%20Aiello%20AAM%20version%20War%20Faces.pdf [p.20].

2. 'Britain's Camp Bastion Shame', front page of the i on Saturday, 10 May 2014: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Front-page-of-the-i-on-Saturday-10-May-2014-Front-page-image-reproduced-here-with-kind_fig1_310612743

3. Abduljalil Abdulhassam watches as his grand daughter Miram, aged 12, holds a picture of her missing father Yassim in Shuhaba, southern Iraq. Dan Chung/Guardian/MOD Pool: https://www.bridgemanimages.com/en/noartistknown/iraqi-abduljalil-abdulhassam-watches-as-his-granddaughter-holds-picture-of-her-missing-father-near/photograph/asset/8238742

The War We See is back! First episode is out on 15 July, with new episodes out fortnightly.

As this inaugural series of The War We See comes to a close, this episode offers a moment to pause and reflect. I look back on the conversations that have shaped this first series: the themes that emerged, the questions that still linger in mind, and what I’ve learned from listening closely to those documenting and studying the visuals of conflict. Alongside these reflections, I’m sharing three previously unheard snippets from past conversations - moments that didn’t make the original episodes but offer fresh insight, nuance, and perspective. These excerpts deepen the stories the podcast has been exploring and highlight the complexity at the heart of how we understand war through its imagery.

The War We See will be going on a brief hiatus before returning for a brand new series featuring new guests and exciting new conversations. Thank you for listening, sharing, and engaging so thoughtfully with this first chapter. The conversation is far from over, and I look forward to returning soon with new voices and new stories.

This episode is the second half of my fascinating conversation with David Birkin, artist, writer, and Senior Lecturer in Photography at the London College of Communication (University of the Arts London). In Part II, we discuss Visible Justice, the wonderful transdisciplinary network David and his colleague Max Houghton co-founded in 2018 at the University of the Arts London. The Visible Justice research hub brings together practitioners and thinkers from across art, activism, journalism, photography, film, writing, and human rights law who engage critically with the relationship between visual culture and social justice, creating spaces for collaboration beyond disciplinary boundaries.

We also talk about David’s selected three images, drawn from his doctoral research as well more recent imagery that has resonated powerfully with him. As with the previous episode, the themes of imperial violence and visual resistance continue to dominate our conversation, with David’s unique and refreshing perspectives offering a powerfully hopeful conclusion to the discussion.

Visible Justice: https://www.visible-justice.org

David’s website: https://lnkd.in/eqavBv9Q

Note: This conversation was recorded before the ceasefire in Gaza in October 2025. However, it is important to point out that the ceasefire has done very little to ease the suffering of Palestinians, which continues largely unabated and without accountability.

Links to David’s selected photos:

1.     Photograph from the report of the damage done to the British Aerospace Hawk jet in 1996 by the Ploughshares Four (Seeds of Hope East Timor Ploughshares Group): https://for-peace.maydayrooms.org/seeds-of-hope-ploughshares/9/ (see full collection for more photographs).

2.     David’s Instagram post with the video of a US military aircraft taking off from Kabul Airport, August 2021: https://www.instagram.com/p/CSqN-Ylo98s/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

3.     Protesters demonstrate in support of 'Palestine Action', organised by the Defend Our Juries group, in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue in London, July 5, 2025. Jeff Moore, AP: https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/people-take-part-in-a-protest-in-support-of-palestine-news-photo/2222966116

This is Part One of a very special two-part episode with David Birkin, artist, writer, Senior Lecturer in Photography at the London College of Communication (University of the Arts London) and currently, a Visiting Fellow in Art History at the University of Cambridge. David is known for a wide-ranging body of photography-led installations and large-scale visual performances that confront state violence and imperial power, while also enacting forms of creative resistance to them. In a conversation that is as emotionally resonant as it is captivating, we explore his practice and the questions that shape it: how images circulate power, how visual culture sustains imperial violence, and how art can intervene in these processes. We also discuss his ongoing doctoral research into histories of resistance and disarmament in the British imperial context — what he brilliantly describes as tracing “the history of the imperial through the lens of the aerial” — and consider its urgent relevance today, amid the genocide in Gaza and ongoing violence elsewhere in the world. David is a true creative, a very exciting scholar, and a committed advocate for social justice, whose work reminds us that images of war are never neutral and that visual representations of violence are always bound up with questions of power, responsibility, and justice.

Part Two is out next week, featuring a discussion of David’s three selected images.

David’s website: https://www.davidbirkin.net

Notes

1. This conversation was recorded before the ceasefire in Gaza in October 2025. 

2. David's selected images will be discussed in Part Two of this conversation, posted next week, so the images will be linked then.

This week, I’m joined by fellow Imperial War Museum (IWM) doctoral researcher Katy Thornton (King’s College London), whose research uses the photojournalist Tim Hetherington’s archives at the IWM to examine the fascinating power dynamics between photographers, their subjects, and contemporary culture. Using her own background as a youth worker and academic grounding as a sociologist, Katy explores the intricate relationship between the photographer and the photographed within the context of youth combatants in West Africa between 1989 and 2003. In this evocative and stimulating conversation, we discuss her incredibly nuanced approach to a deeply complex subject, Hetherington’s own remarkable legacy, and the importance of acknowledging the role that power, perception, and agency play in what the camera captures of war.

Katy’s doctoral research: https://www.iwm.org.uk/research/doctoral-awards/students-alumni/katy-thornton

Links to Katy’s selected photographs

1.     A LURD combatant, and member of the AA (Anti-Aircraft) brigade, in an exchange with his girlfriend during the LURD advance on the capital Monrovia. June 2003: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205738356

2.     The anti-Gaddafi uprising and Civil War in Libya, 2011:  https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/contemporary-conflict/tim-hetherington

3.     Near the port of Greenville: A fisherman sails past one of the many shipwrecks scattered along Liberia's coastline. September 2005: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205738530

In this episode, I’m joined by award-winning documentary filmmaker and photojournalist Fiona Lloyd-Davies, whose fearless storytelling has placed her on the frontlines of global conflict for more than three decades. From the besieged towns of Bosnia to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Fiona has used her camera to expose human rights abuses and amplify voices that often go unheard.

We explore her remarkable career, from her early work during the Bosnian war including work on the BAFTA-winning The Unforgiving, to her own extraordinary filmmaking, such as Ordered to Rape, which revealed the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war in Congo, and her work on the groundbreaking Baghdad blogger series with Salam Pax. Fiona reflects on the ethical responsibility of witnessing, documenting, and framing war, and on filming stories of immense trauma with compassion and integrity.

We also discuss her upcoming project UNCONQUERED: Goražde City of Heroes, and her BBC Radio 4 Archive on 4programme, which revisits one of the least-known sieges of the Bosnian war through powerful first-hand testimony.

BBC Radio 4 (Archive on 4) “The Battle of the Drina”, now available on BBC Sounds: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002nh76

Fiona’s production company: https://www.studio9films.co.uk/about-1

Links to Fiona's selected photographs

 1. Stanley Spencer's 'Travoys Arriving with Wounded at a Dressing Station at Smol, Macedonia, September 1916’: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2f/Spencer%2C_Stanley_%28Sir%29_%28RA%29_-_Travoys_Arriving_with_Wounded_at_a_Dressing-Station_at_Smol%2C_Macedonia%2C_September_1916_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

2. Serbian Epics (1992): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UTmiTsmHQ4 (the gun sequence from 34:15 - 34:24)

3. Lee Miller's "Fall of the Citadel, St. Malo (1944): https://rps.org/media/5p0fb2sq/copyright_leemillerarchives_fall_of_the_citadel-_aerial_bombardment_st_malo_france_1944-lr.jpg?mode=max&width=1520&rnd=133687995851170000

4. Portrait of Ancilla, Fiona Lloyd-Davies: https://sotonac-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/ha4g21_soton_ac_uk/IQCKEwiCWic0TpAM-IuDfrrMAUWQV1SH93Uiw-TIRlMUbU4?e=atH7Ci

5. [Bonus] An elderly woman pushing her belongings through the rubble of Kravice village, eastern Bosnia, January 1993, Fiona Lloyd-Davies: https://sotonac-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/ha4g21_soton_ac_uk/IQCKEwiCWic0TpAM-IuDfrrMAUWQV1SH93Uiw-TIRlMUbU4?e=atH7Ci

This week, I’m joined by Dr Ali Fisher from Human Cognition Ltd. and Università Cattolica in Milan. Ali’s work bridges strategic communications and data science to counter emerging threats in complex information environments, such as political disinformation campaigns, online child sexual abuse networks, and the exploitation of online platforms by terrorist groups. Ali is the creator of Mujahid Mind AI and the BlackLight data feed - tools that provide near real-time insights into Salafi-Jihadi exploitation of the Internet, which, combined with his decades’ long familiarity with the subject and his own training as a historian, mean he is uniquely placed to discuss this often-misunderstood genre of conflict imagery. In this conversation, Ali and I discuss a broad range of subjects such as deciphering Salafi-Jihadi visuals, researcher wellbeing, the important work of preserving visual content from Gaza, and his development of tools that can help curate, preserve, and decode online content.

Note: Due to a discussion of atrocity imagery in this conversation - mainly some examples of graphic violence that are briefly mentioned - listener discretion is advised.

Link to Mujahid Mind AI: https://www.mujahidmind.io

Some of Ali’s recent co-authored publications mentioned in the episode:

Decoding the Terrorist Mind, The European Institute for Counter Terrorism and Conflict Prevention (EICTP), July 2025: https://eictp.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Final_Decoding-the-Terrorist-Mind-The-Role-of-AI-Powered-Tools.pdf

Gore and Violent Extremism: An Explorative Analysis of the Use of Gore Websites for Hosting and Sharing Extremist and Terrorist Content, VOX-Pol, 2025: https://voxpol.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/DCUPN0751-Gore-Extremism-WEB-250704.pdf

Ali’s selected photographs: 

Islamic State fighter on horseback at sunset: https://onlinejihad.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/pic5.jpg

Nsala of Wala in Congo looks at the severed hand and foot of his five-year old daughter. Photographed by John H. Harris in May 1904. Appears in Edmund Morel, King Leopold's rule in Africa, (1904) p. 145: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nsala_of_Wala_in_Congo_looks_at_the_severed_hand_and_foot_of_his_five-year_old_daughter,_1904.jpg