Photographing the Beauty of Life in the Shadow of War | Nat Geo Live

I was working in New York City as a photo editor sitting at my computer all day looking at stories coming in. And I always dreamed of becoming a foreign correspondent. And I got the courage to quit my job and move to the Czech Republic, where I got a job working for a small business paper.

And in that time, in that next year the war in Kosovo was starting; it was in my backyard. And suddenly, I went from being a relatively amateur photographer working at a business newspaper to overnight becoming a war photographer. And as I dove into my career, I did the classic thing I think a lot of photographers do. We want to make a difference; we want to tell powerful stories. So, you know, what do you do? You go to the most dangerous, difficult, toughest places on the planet, and I did that.

And I was 26 when I started, and I went to conflict zones all over the world because I wanted to make a difference. And I think we're automatically taught to believe that those powerful stories are the ones that are driven in angst and death and suffering. And I don't ever want to minimize the importance of telling those stories. But I had set down this path to become a war photographer without meaning to. I was sent to Gaza.

And this was when the second Intifada was unfolding. And it began as kids throwing rocks and quickly escalated into people dying. And there were plenty of stories all around us, but we were asked to focus on the violence. Obviously, that's what sells in newspapers. And this is a scene, and literally there are at least half a dozen photographers next to me; we were all photographing exactly the same thing.

And this was a profound moment in my life when I started asking myself all these questions, because one day I was walking back to my hotel and I heard this music on the street. So, I wandered in and I found this hotel and this couple getting married. And this beautiful scene, a scene of love, you know, in the middle of all of this chaos just captivated me, and I thought, "Wow! Why aren't we telling these stories as well?"

Because they're just as important; they help us relate to one another and help me understand these people as human beings just like you and me. And so, I think that, you know, we've become attuned to thinking that, you know, the positive, the good, the beautiful stories are just banal, they're boring. You know, they don't really deserve to be published. What would happen if we chose to illuminate the things that unite us as human beings, rather than just the things that divide us?