008 - Guy Martin
© Guy Martin
Guy Martin’s career began almost exactly ten years ago when in 2006 he graduated from the legendary University of Wales BA course in documentary photography with a first class degree. Since then, he has establishing himself as a successful editorial photographer and his work has appeared in a wide selection of some of the world’s most high profile magazines.
As well as editorial commissions, he has also worked consistently on long-term personal projects - which, as he explains, are hugely important to him - and his latest The City of Dreams, shot in Turkey where he is now based, has been extensively published and exhibited. It’s a clever juxtaposition of two disparate elements involving Turkish soap operas and work from various protests. You can see it on his website (link below) and that is the project he is referrring to in the latter half of the podcast.
During 2011 guy covered the tumultous political upheaval in the middle east and North Africa, which we have subsequently come to refer to as the Arab Spring. He photographed the revolution in Egypt and then, in April of that year, the civil war in Libya. It was there in the besieged city of Misrata that tragedy struck and Guy came very close to losing his life. He and fellow photographers Chris Hondras and Tim Hetherington, two of the most experienced and respected photojournalists of their generation, were caught in heavy fighting and a motar exploded right next to them. Chris and Tim were both killed - a huge and shocking loss which I think is probably still being felt in the photographic community not to mention among those that knew and loved them - but Guy, who was badly injured, survived and got home to England to begin his rehabilitation, which he threw himself into with single-minded determination.
In episode 008, Guy discusses:
Relationship with Huck magazine
Staying with it "until it gets awkward"
Print being alive and well
The importance of personal projects
Turkey project - The City of Dreams
Studying at Newport
Tragedy in Misrata
“For me, the positive was to try and re-engage with photography... for me to be using photography, rather than photography to be using me.”
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