Giles Duley

In addition to my photography work, I am the CEO of Legacy of War Foundation, an NGO I founded that supports communities rebuilding after conflict. We are trying to redefine how the sector works, creating truly beneficiary led and localised programmes that support people to regain their independence. I don’t believe we can empower others; I believe our role is to break down the barriers that are stopping people empowering themselves. This is best illustrated by our Land For Women programme in Rwanda where we have set up cooperative farms for women who are genocide survivors. We buy the land and pass ownership to the women and provide a five-year training programme. Through land ownership and education, we break down the barriers allowing the women to empower themselves through business.

The title ‘Explorer’ may seem strange for a conflict photographer and CEO of a humanitarian NGO. But in my heart, that is how I see myself: driven by that same spirit that I read about in those books as a child. What drives the explorer? Curiosity, a search for knowledge, forcing oneself out of your comfort zone, a desire to understand the world we live in and our place within it. Those are the things that drive me each day, and a wish to make the world a slightly better place. Once again my life is spent on those distant shores, traveling those thousand-mile roads.

In the last few years I have been in Ukraine, Somalia, Kenya, South Sudan, Vietnam, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa and Rwanda; documenting the stories of those living in the shadow of war. But now – through Legacy of War Foundation and my advocacy work – I am also able to play an active role in helping others to dismantle the barriers that they face. My dream is simply that everybody has the same opportunity that I had: if my images or storytelling mean that one child has the opportunities to live in peace or to rebuild their life after war, my life will have meant something.

As a child I dreamt of distant shores, and journeys of a thousand miles. To follow in the footsteps of DH Lawrence, Robert Scott, Amelia Earhart, Ernest Shackleton and all the other heroes whose stories I read by torchlight under the covers of my bed at night. As a child I already knew my life would be a life of adventure. The drive was always curiosity: the fuel for all explorers.

Photography was to become the vehicle for that unconventional life. From when I first picked up a camera at eighteen, it was a passport into the lives of others. That camera led me from a tour bus photographing bands in the mid-nineties, to the life of a fashion photographer in Paris and Milan. Then, when I finally found my purpose, that same camera led me to conflict zones around the world documenting the cost of war on civilians. In 2011, I was to face my greatest challenge: I was injured working as a photographer in Afghanistan. Losing both my legs and my left arm, I also lost my freedom. Told I would never walk or even live independently again, that life of adventure seemed to fade from sight. Rather than climb Everest or row across the Atlantic, my goals were now simply to be able to sit up in bed unaided or learn to feed myself again. But that restless and stubborn spirit never left me, and I reached my summit. After a year in hospital, I learnt to walk and live independently. Eighteen months after my injury, I was back in Afghanistan. Now I run an organisation that helps others to rebuild their lives in the aftermath of injury, and continue to document these stories.