"The world that I grew up in will be, from today, a poorer place. It is with great sadness I have to write that Philip - a monumental, irrepressible force in photography and in life - and a courageous fighter against the cancer that finally defeated him - passed away early this morning... " Continue reading here.Griffiths' Vietnam Inc. remains to my mind the great book of war photography - a sarcastic ransacking of the hypocrisy and lies that accompanied the Vietnam War, and one which can still serve as a guide to the rationalisations and deceit that forms the foundation for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I interviewed Griffiths about his follow up to Vietnam Inc., Agent Orange, a few years back - the text follows below.
Agent Orange
Welsh photographer Philip Jones Griffiths first heard about the dangers of Agent Orange (the highly toxic herbicide used as a defoliant during the Vietnam War) in Saigon in 1967. "During the war there were these rumours that babies were being born without eyes and it became a quest to find them," says Griffiths. "I visited as many catholic orphanages as I could, but I was barred entry from most of them and I became convinced that the Americans had put the word out - don't let any press in."
Continue reading here.
2 comments:
Thank you, for that- there's also a good interview in the Spring issue of Aperture...
http://www.aperture.org/jonesgriffiths/
Cheers Stan - I still can't get over how much Vietnam Inc. parallels some of the information elements of the Iraq War.
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