Philip Jones Griffiths 1936-1008

[Harry Lime]

Sadly, Philip Jones Griffiths has passed away.

From the MAGNUM site:

Philip’s passing is an enormous loss to us all at Magnum, and I am sure to everyone who knew him. It was a privilege to have brushed, even lightly, against his charm, his brilliance and his passion for photojournalism. Those who only know him through his work will have missed his skills as an orator, raconteur, wit and polemicist. And they will have missed the lovely man that he was – graceful and welcoming – especially to young people trying to make a start in photography. He had much to pass on, not just about the importance of “real” photography, but about the art and craft of picture-making.

Philip was born in Rhuddlan, near Rhyl in Wales on 18th February 1936 and it was there, at the age of 16, that he learnt an early lesson about photography - from Henri Cartier-Bresson: “The first picture of his I ever saw was during a lecture at the Rhyl camera club. I was 16 and the speaker was Emrys Jones. He projected the picture upside down. Deliberately, to disregard the subject matter to reveal the composition. It's a lesson I've never forgotten.”

It was Philip’s consummate skill as a picture maker, carefully able to draw the viewer closer and closer to his subjects through his emotionally-charged compositions that lent such power to his work. Philip was always concerned with individuals – their personal and intimate suffering more than any particular class or ideological struggle. And the strength of his vision, that inspired so many of us, led Henri Cartier-Bresson to write of Philip: 'not since Goya has anyone portrayed war like Philip Jones Griffiths.'

Philip’s iconic work on the Vietnam War, published in 1971 under the title ‘Vietnam Inc.’ is arguably the most articulate and compelling anti-war statement made by any photojournalist ever. Indeed it led Noam Chomsky to comment that: "If anybody in Washington had read that book, we wouldn't have had these wars in Iraq or Afghanistan".
Indeed, it was Philip’s passion for peace that led to greatness in his later work. In 2005 he published "Viet Nam at Peace" a 25 year study exploring the long term consequences of the war. The first Westerner to travel by road from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City after the war, and later the Ho Chi Minh trail, he amassed an unparalleled photographic record of the post-war transformation of this country.

Thoroughly industrious and tenacious to the end, Philip had just completed a new book of his less known studies of British life in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, entitled ‘Recollections’, and in the last few weeks before his death, Philip became thoroughly engaged in compiling his life’s work documenting Cambodia.

Philip enriched all our lives with his courage, his empathy, his passion, his wit and his wisdom; and for many he gave to photojournalism its moral soul. He died as he wanted so passionately that we should live - in peace. In his last days he was together with his loving family and friends at his side.

-Stuart Franklin
President, Magnum Photos


http://www.magnumphotos.com/


Also watch what may be his last interview, given just a few weeks ago at the Frontline Club:

www.frontlineclub.com

or

http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1394647866

[__hh]

I am watching this also
http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/ess...griffiths.aspx

[kipkeston]

I love in motion! I'm watching the chris anderson one but i'm going to PJG next. I was surprised when I read about him today. He was rather young.

[Bill Pierce]

There are a lot of good photographers around. Good photographers who are exceptional human beings are a lot more rare. Philip was among the exceptional. In Philip's case "He will be missed." is a cliche returning to its truthful roots. There is no one who knew Philip Jones Griffiths who can't feel pain and loss at the fact that he is no longer with us.