Share and Follow
What gives a photograph the power to capture attention in an era where many have grown indifferent to images of conflict and hardship?
According to Kate Geraghty, an acclaimed Gold Walkley Award-winning photojournalist and the chief photographer for the Sydney Morning Herald, the answer lies in emotion.
“Emotion sparks a conversation,” Geraghty explained during an interview with nine.com.au, commemorating the newspaper’s 195th anniversary.
“It’s about someone catching a glimpse of the newspaper and being so struck by the image that they pause,” she remarked.
“They become curious. They feel compelled to learn more about the story unfolding in front of them,” she added.
“That is what makes a good photograph.”
Geraghty has been photographing war zones and disasters, both natural and man-made, for 25 years at the Herald.
Her first assignment was the 2002 Bali bombings.
The following year she went to Iraq and became the first woman at the Herald to photograph war.
In the decades since, she’s taken the Australian public inside the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, and conflicts across the Middle East and Europe through the lens of her camera.
Her job often involves months of careful planning and coordination, which can go out the window in a split-second when missiles start firing.
“The nature of war is so fluid that you just have to roll with the punches, and just document what’s happening,” she said.
“But really, at the end of the day, none of these challenges is anything compared to the civilian population and what they’re going through.”
Geraghty has seen the aftermath of some of the worst natural disasters of this century.
She has seen war and executions.
In those moments, she feels the responsibility to document what she’s witnessing exactly as it happens.
Some might think it a burden.
To Geraghty, it’s a privilege.
Because while journalists in war zones are protected under international humanitarian law (at least, they’re supposed to be), civilians are not.
Some even risk their own safety and the safety of their loved ones just to speak with members of the press.
And when they do speak, it’s not about global politics or academic opinions – it’s to ask the same questions anyone would in the face of such horror.
Has my house been bombed? Have my family members been killed? How do I protect my child? Am I going to die?
”We have been in situations where, in the absence of a justice system, you know that you’re documenting war crimes,” Geraghty said.
“And people will tell you the most horrific things that have happened to them and show you evidence of that, because they want to tell the world what’s happened.”
She considers it an honour to document those stories and get them out to the world.
Though sometimes just getting them out of the room is the biggest battle.
In 2010, Geraghty was covering the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and captured the moment when it was raided by Israeli soldiers in international waters.
At least nine people were killed and Geraghty was attacked with a stun gun, then detained by Israel before being deported.
Getting her photos out was no easy task.
”Hiding the the images while you were in a prison, and then smuggling them out … that was hard,” she said.
As is being on assignment in war zones like Afghanistan or Ukraine,
Just last month Geraghty was in Lebanon, capturing the destruction as Israel attacked.
Four words guided her through that assignment.
“It’s the first rule of journalism: it’s not about us,” she said.
“What I focus on is the people that we’re meeting or documenting, telling their stories. That’s what matters.”
It’s the same ethos that has has guided Geraghty through every assignment for the last 25 years.
It’s what guides every Herald photographer, from the publication’s very first photojournalist George Bell, to current staff like Nick Moir and Edwina Pickles.
And it’s why they have produced so many iconic images over the last 195 years.
Just look at Stuart MacGladrie’s Vietnam war snaps, or Russell McPhedran’s photos from the Munich Massacre.
Jacky Ghossein’s pictures from inside Dadaab refugee camp, Moir’s photos from Black Summer, or Pickles’ Bondi Shooting coverage.
“The general public will drive away from bushfires, will do anything to get away from danger,” Geraghty said.
“But photojournalists at the Herald, we’ve always gone towards it.”
Hundreds of photographers have worked at the paper in the 195 years since its first issue was published and one trait links them all over nearly two centuries.
“We all embody the same thing: passion and dedication to telling the story,” Geraghty said.
“That’s a legacy that everyone should be proud of.”
NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.