In this Focus Edition, I’d like to you hear, to meet, Giles Penfound, a former head of press photography for the British Army. Early in 2017 I made a film with Giles, the links in the show notes will take you to his film and during the podcast you’ll hear him make reference to the photographs that he shows within that film. If it weren’t for his graphic description of the images, this episode may just have resided as that film, but the ability to transpose this to sound only, is testament to how Giles describes his life as a photographer in the army and what it means to be a professional photographer in that most challenging theatre of war.

His time in Northern Ireland, his work during conflicts in Bosnia and Iraq as an army photographer leave a pictorial legacy, many of his photographs are historical documents, some have been used as evidence in international court. So today’s programme is a real journey of light and shade, it’s not simply about the sharp end of military photographic duty, it’s about how a photographer starts, finds inspiration, finds the craft, hones that craft and turns it to subject matter of a somewhat lighter nature sometimes.

But as you’ll hear, the story is always paramount as he makes his pictures. So be aware that if you want to dig a bit deeper into his work and the images you hear about, there’s plenty of chance to do that. I want to set the scene as to how this episode was recorded. It’s late winter heading toward Spring and the location is an empty grain store on a farm seven miles north west of Newbury in Berkshire, England. Darkness had fallen, and Giles appeared with a large portfolio with mainly A3 sized prints which he’d made himself. In the middle of this wide open empty space was a rusty iron work bench. We cleaned it off, lit the scene with one main key light, dangled a bare bulb above for effect and I got ready to ask him a series of questions.

What happened next though was unexpected. Giles methodically commentated on each image without stopping and certainly not inviting me to interject or question. It became quickly evident to me that this was a photographer bearing his soul, being absolutely honest about what it feels like to photograph subjects that most photographers would find extremely challenging to say the least. So, you’re about to hear the gentle, honest, observational, authentic, sometimes troubled thoughts of a photographer who earned a respect from Colonel Tim Collins who during the 2003 Iraq war made that infamous eve-of-battle speech, a copy which apparently hung in the Oval Office. During an interview for the BBC, he compared the honesty of Giles work to that of the legendary war photographer Robert Capa, who is widely regarded as one of the most influential and greatest combat photographers in history. These are the thoughts of Giles Penfound.

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