“hy “after. collector

Photographer
keeping pace
with the times

B Dark Odyssey, four
decades of photos by Philip
Jones Griffiths, to April 11
at Presentation House
Gallery :

Layne Christensen

News Reporter.
layne@usnews.com

IN the 20 years Philip -
Jones Griffiths has called
New York home, the

Welsh-born photojour-
nalist figures he’s not
once spent more than six
consecutive weeks with
his feet planted on’
American soil.

in his most fre sactic year.
(1964) his shooting sched-
“ale rook him-to.25 coun-
tries.
“T was literally zig-zag-
ging across the world like a :
schizophrenic.spider on a’
huge web,” said Jones
Griffiths while in Vancouver
last week to open’a show of:
his work-at Presentation
House. Gallery.
The North Vancouver
photo-based gallery presents
an exhibition of 86 images
representing the photogra-
_pher’s 40-year career, to
date. His work is also show-
‘cased in a new book, Dark Odrssey (Aperture, $50).
: His work has taken him to more than 140 countries on
“five continents, depicting the tragedies of war, famine and
civil unrest.

Sixty-three last month, Jones Griffiths has no plans to, :

retire. "Is obscene to ask such a question,” he replies

- good-naturedly to a reporter’s inference that he might

want to slow down the pace a bit.‘

He ean recall in detail the excitement of his single
busiest week, in 1964, while freelancing with The
Observer, a major British newspaper. He had abandoned a

_carcer as a pharmacist to pursue photography. full time.

“I'm in Moscow one day shooting children’s fashion
for MeCall’s (magazine) and the next day shooting a story

on (United States Senator John) Chafee,” then-Governor

{of Rhode Island. At the end of the week, the rookie pho=).

tographer was in Alaska shooting the aftermath of one of
the’ most violent earthquakes ever recorded. The following
Wednesday he was in Siberia.

Jones Griffiths learned very carly on that one of the
“keys to success.as a globe- trotting shirp- “shooter was mak-

‘ing the most of his travel time.

“You have to be a qualified masochist. to enjoy the
whole’ business of air travel,” says-Jones Griffiths, who i is

“both candid and charming as an interview subject.

“Using his time in the sky to relax and regroup is a sur-

al technique. he? 8 used to great advantage ever the -
years..- : :
The photographer now spends about’a’ quarter of the
. year Working on assignment for publications. like the :

Washington Past, Time and the German newsmagazine 9"

»Speigel. The rest of the year, he works for himself, pursu-.
ing projects. with a particular passion; like cxamining the
y devastation Agent. Orange has. caused to entire communi-
“ties in. Vietnam, which even now are are. experiencing the |
fallout from the deadly chemical.

Asia is a constant draw, a place i in which Jones Griffiths “
says he felt. “instinctively at home” when he first visited in,
°66'to cover the.war in Vietnam for LIFE magazine.

That assignment led ‘to the publication of his first
» book: Vietnani, Inc., in?71,.which has become’a sought-
item. (A single copy. was auctioned last
yearsat. Christie’s in London for £1,200.). :
) practical-approach to dealing with the horrors...
wed through | the lens. :

Coppola clas :
~All are important stories to tell,” says Jones Griffiths ©

A doctor who faints at the sight of blood wouldn’t be
doing his job, he says Pragmaticaliy, “A photographer who
starts crying can’t focus his lens.”

Since he’s had children (two daughters, now 15 and
16) he’s found it increasingly difficult to photograph chil-
dren in distress or pain.

Yet on rare occasion has he put down the camera:

The trick is to ‘keep shooting, says Jones Griffiths. The
more intensely you feel, the harder you work to get the .
photo.

“It’s s important t to photograph everything,” he-says, so
there is a complete record of events. “We often are haii
judges of what is important at the time.” Some images
“have a historical significance that g grows with passing
years.”

He remembers one particularly horrific situation w hen
taking photographs of napalm victims at Quangnygay
Provincial hospital in Vietnam during: the-war. He w: as led
toa shed where the worst victims were left to die.

“LT went in there. It was pretty: horrendous. I saw ackids

He had no eyelids, no lips, no nose. They had all: been ’
burnt away by napalm.”. While struggling with the deci-
sion to invade the boy’s suffering with his lens, he,savs,

“suddenly I felt a tug on my jacket hem. ‘It was him.” The
boy motioned for the photographer to snap his picture.
“He made it so easy for me,” says Jones Griffiths,

That photo, like many others, has never been pub-

‘lished, One remarkable photo that did make it into print
was the image of American Gls administering aid tea
wounded Vietcong, who had fought for three days with
his intestines in a cooking bow! strapped onte his stom:
ach, an image that replayed-as a scene in the Francis Ford:
sic-Apocalypse Now.

of the images that work together to present a more com:
plere picture of the struggle and suffering of war.

His own story will be the subject of a one: hour TV.
show to air in the U.K. larer this year.’

Last week, the lens was turned av Jones Griftiths him

self asa film crew commissioned by FEV London joined :

“the photojournalist i in Vancouver-and, travelled with him
“On assignment co India: They'll likely follow him to ~
Vietnam and Cambodia, Africa and South America as they
piece together, their profile of this fascinating man, his .
w ork and we orld views. ;

a 1961, a young boy destroys a piano, in Pa nt-Y-Waen,
“once | voted the most. beautiful, village in. ‘South Wales