'I prepare very carefully'
Sergey Ponomarev: “I prepare very carefully for all that trips and I prepare the store, I prepare drivers, the roads, everything. So, I'm trying to be sure that nothing exceptional will happen there because obviously my job is to get images and bring them back. It's not a matter of personal, personal experience and trip, you know, and then stories that you could tell at the bar. That's, that's the stories that your audience and the paper should, should read or see. So, it's, it's a kind of a job and, and we, we constantly try to minimise those risks and by just proper planning. Well, we all make mistakes and some of our mistakes cause us lives to us, but then we feel also that our responsibility and that's kind of our job to do that.”
Sergey Ponomarev has photographed conflicts in Afghanistan, Syria, Libya and Lebanon.
Reporting from areas affected by war involves a certain amount of personal risk but for Ponomarev the need to record unfolding events outweighs the danger.
'It's not a matter of personal experiences and trips you know and the stories that could you tell at the bar,' he said.
'It's the story that your audience and the paper should read or see.'
Work by award-winning Russian documentary photographer Sergey Ponomarev, featuring more than 60 unforgettable colour photographs from two recent bodies of work, will be on display at IWM North as part of Syria: A Conflict Explored, a season of exhibitions and events reflecting upon the ongoing conflict in Syria.
