Capturing Life On The Edge 

Documenting the biggest refugee crises of our time, two award-winning photojournalists describe laying bare the bloody truths of war. 

Thirty-six-year-old multi-award-winning documentary photojournalist Byron Smith has made it his life’s mission to capture the reality of conflict and migration all over the world, from the Middle East to Ukraine.   

“With 9/11 and the Iraq war in the early 2000s, the only way to be where things were happening was to be a photographer,” he says.  

As we speak over email, Smith is in Ukraine covering the exodus of civilians due to the war with Russia. He describes the impossibility of processing the suffering he is seeing daily, recalling a child clutching her teddy bear crossing the wooden planks placed by the Ukrainian military on the Irpin river. 

“Just the innocence of this moment made me ask the question ‘what did this girl do to deserve this?’ The answer is more unfortunate because she didn’t do anything. Nobody fleeing or being killed or injured in this conflict did anything.”  

Smith, a freelancer who has had work published by Getty, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian and more, also provides images to Choose Love, a refugee charity that has already raised more than £2 million for its Ukraine campaign. 

In the last two weeks he has been caught in air raids and stuck in bunkers until shelling stops; he spent a night at a Kyiv station at one point. In an age of fake news and distrust of mass media, he believes the immediacy of his work, seen by his 27,000 followers on social-media channels, provides an important window onto reality. “I feel that images can galvanise change; there isn’t anything else I would rather do with my life.”   

Also, in Ukraine covering the war is Afshin Ismaeli, a Norway-based conflict photographer and journalist who works for Aftenposten, Norway’s largest newspaper. In 2003 he started work as a journalist in Erbil, Iraq and moved to Oslo in 2008 to begin a career as a freelancer photographer and has covered the Iraq conflict since 2005.  

Before the war in Ukraine erupted, he dedicated himself to capturing life after the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan. The Taliban and other militant groups seized power after the US exited Afghanistan and journalists such as Ismaeli were not treated well. When trying to report on the protests that were held on the streets of the capital, he was beaten by the Taliban, who smashed his camera and lenses and detained him and several other reporters.  

Ismaeli voiced concern over the treatment of women and children in an article in Vogue, which he hopes to capture with his harrowing photography. “I’ve been to combat zones and many different provinces, and one issue that is really critical is the treatment of women. It’s a sensitive issue and, as a man, it’s not easy to talk to the women in Afghanistan. There are few or no women on the streets in most provinces. You just see men everywhere.”   

He has been honoured with many awards from photography and journalism; including The Ossietzky Award for freedom of expression; honoured international reporter of the year 2017 and 2018 in Norway; video journalist of the year 2019; news photo of the year; and national coverage of the year 2020. 

If you would like to help refugees with a donation, some charities you can give to include Médecins Sans Frontières (msf.org), UNICEF (unicef.org), Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS.eu), Save the Children (savethechildren.org) and Choose Love (choose.love).