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The poem War Photographer penned by Carol Ann Duffy is a testimony for the hardships a war photographer fights within himself, with his peers at office, and the pressure of being kept away from the war front at the behest of close family members.

When I was asked to peg something on the city in my columns my thoughts raced to a quote — “Photography is like music which has no caste, creed, religion, sex and above all it has no geographical area with which it sticks to”. Photography has provided imagery evidence of places that are now being used by the human scientific community to research and land themselves on the planet Mars. These first pictures of the Red Planet were provided by NASA’s Spirit Rover on January 21 2004.

Well, forget about going that far. Look at the various war coverages by many prominent visual journalists who put their lives at risk to provide their readers what they could not get to see. Many editors and quality writers of leading newspapers across the world shy from the battlefield for fear of coming in the way of a stray bullet. It is at such times that many photojournalists don the cap of a visual and text content provider for many an organisation.

Closer home, during a meeting of crime beat reporters with the editor of a reputed paper to discuss their hits and misses of the week, of which I was a part too, I was dumbfounded when they appealed in chorus that a photojournalist accompany them as they “were scared of going alone on dangerous crime assignments”, including riots and even cases like murder, suicide or road accidents, fearing they would be beaten up by the emotional relatives of the dead.

This without the thought of how a photojournalist was going to help them from a murdering crowd in a riot situation. Was the photojournalist going to protect the reporter from stone missiles thrown at the media or was he going to concentrate on moving around to get the best image while risking his life? Many visual journalists have given their lives to ensure that they get that one great picture for the world to see.

Late veteran war photographer Robert Capa had said soon after the end of World War II, “I hope to stay unemployed as a war photographer till the end of my life,” and also added, “War is like an ageing actress: more and more dangerous and less and less photogenic.”

What forced Capa to say these words is anyone’s guess as war is a fascinating experience, captivating to its audience and deadly at the same time.

A photojournalist comes full circle only after he/ she gets an opportunity to cover a civil unrest, a riot or a war. This makes them all the more potent, making them true visual journalists with a rare distinction.