Why don't war photos shock us anymore? Andrew Quilty spent 9 years as a photojournalist in Afghanistan: photographing the Taliban, the war, and the day Kabul fell and he has an answer. In this episode, we get into how the images on your feed shape what you believe about war, why you feel less every time you scroll, and what nine years behind the camera taught him about what a single photo can and can't do.
Andrew is the first photographer ever to win the Gold Walkley for his image inside the US-bombed MSF hospital in Kunduz. He's the author of August in Kabul and is currently a witness in a war crimes trial.
In this episode, he explains:
■ The Checklist in Your Head: Why he arrived in Afghanistan with a superficial list of images (burqas, poverty, violence), how it changed as he came to understand the place, and why he chose not to push to photograph women in private homes.
■ The Camera as a Shield: Why he calls his camera a shield from fear and trauma, why it never made him feel safe from harm, and how walking towards danger feels from the inside.
■ Can One Photo Change the World? Why we remember only a handful of images, why people read photographs through their own worldview, and why context matters.
■ Who Shapes the Story: How the editors and institutions behind publications influence what we see, what independent media gains and loses without guardrails, and what social media does to our appetite for the dramatic.
■ The Kunduz Hospital: How he got into the city, what he found, and why tracking down the man’s family gave an anonymous image a human story.
■ Kabul Falls: What the final days looked like from inside the city, what he feared and didn’t, and why he says “it’s complicated” is the one thing to hold in mind whenever you see a war image online.
This episode discusses war, violence and death.
00:19 What Do Photojournalists Want From a Photo?
02:32 The Checklist: What He Expected to Photograph
05:15 How Afghans and the Taliban Treated Him
09:56 When the Camera Puts You in Danger
13:20 Walking Towards a Blast
17:15 Trauma, Choice and Coming Home to Sydney
20:39 Is the Camera a Shield or a Weapon?
25:25 Can a Single Photograph Change Anything?
30:50 Editors, Bias and the Machine of Media
34:44 Citizen Journalism and Legacy Media
38:06 Desensitisation and Algorithm Bubbles
42:14 The Kunduz Hospital and the Gold Walkley Photo
01:00:18 The Fall of Kabul
01:08:40 Getting Out
01:10:35 Images as Weapons
01:14:20 What To Remember When You See a War Photo
Questions asked in this episode (for reference):
- What’s the goal most photojournalists operate under when they go out to get photos?
- What checklist was running in your head when you started?
- How were you treated by locals because you were a journalist?
- Did you ever have to navigate the fear of the Taliban?
- Did the camera ever put you in danger?
- Did you ever feel targeted as a journalist?
- What goes through your head walking towards a bomb blast?
- How do you go home at the end of the day without being harmed, and how do you digest what you’ve seen?
- Now you’re back in Sydney, do moments transport you back to Afghanistan?
- Is the camera a shield, a weapon, or something else?
- Does the camera shield you from people who want to cause you harm?
- Can a single photograph change that much, or is that a stretch?
- Was there a discrepancy between what you submitted and what your employers chose?
- Does citizen journalism contribute positively to how wars are documented?
- Are we becoming desensitised by the pace of the news cycle?
- Can you tell the story of the Kunduz hospital photograph?
- Is finding the man’s family what made the photograph so special?
- How did Kabul change when it fell, and were you ever scared?
- Were you ever scared you wouldn’t get out?
- What’s your opinion on images in conflict being used as a weapon?
- If people could hold one thing in mind when they see a war image, what should it be?
- How would you describe the way war is portrayed in the media in one word?