GULF WAR 1990–1991

A handful of images I shot before and during the War

From 1988–1998, I was employed as an Assistant Editor at Soldier — The British Army Magazine. My role was to produce news stories and feature articles about the British Army. These included profiles of Regiments and the experiences of their soldiers. It was a fortnightly publication that was also available on Newstands. The job involved a lot of travel and, during my time at Soldier, I visited 29 countries of the World. Before I joined the magazine, I had been a freelance photojournalist since 1979. It goes without saying that I maintained an interest in taking photographs, although I was accompanied throughout by one of the magazine’s three excellent photographers. After interviewing people, I took a few images for my own interest.

When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, British and US Forces were deployed to the region. Soldier teams were deployed in uniform to record events. I visited troops in Kuwait in the run-up to War and then accompanied British troops during the ground war and then spent three weeks recording the fighting experiences of soldiers and being guided around the battlefields.

I was with a party of journalists who were the first to be taken to view the carnage to be found on the Highway to Hell on the Mutlah Ridge. As you can imagine, I shot a lot of film with my two Minolta X300 cameras, one loaded with Kodachrome transparency film and the other with B/W film. I returned home with around 3,500 images to add to my collection