Spotlight on: Kate Geraghty
This photojournalist’s mantlepiece is groaning with Walkleys, including the 2017 Gold Walkley and Nikon-Walkley Photographer of the Year.
2017 Gold Walkley
Michael Bachelard and Kate Geraghty, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, Fairfax Media, “Stories of Mosul”
If you needed any proof of how world-class Australian photojournalism is, you need only consider Kate Geraghty’s work. She’s made plenty of trips to the Walkley stage (she has nine), but it’s the people she’s photographed around the world, particularly in Iraq, that keep her focused behind the lens. A love of history and a love of people drove her to photojournalism as a way to record and share people’s stories. Here she shares the story behind her 2017 Gold Walkley-winning reporting (with Michael Bachelard) from Mosul.
How did you get started on this story?
I’ve been going to Iraq since 2003. At the Herald we’ve documented every milestone in Iraq since the 1991 Gulf War (although I didn’t go to that). So it’s basically a continuation of that commitment to covering the conflicts in Iraq and the implications for the rest of the world, and more importantly the people.
We were there when ISIS first started in Iraq — so we have been following it really closely. Once you do an assignment you don’t forget about it. You’re constantly researching, updating, reading about it. We’re also in very close contact with our fixers and friends and contacts in Iraq. We all knew that the “Stories from Mosul” would be historic to reclaim that story.
We went twice in 2017. We had the full support of our editors. For any assignment when you go to a conflict zone there’s a lot of backdrop — behind the scenes research, keeping up to date with all of the security situations, talking to your contacts on the ground.
Once we were committed to going for The Herald and The Age, we were provided with all necessary resources. That’s not only physically, but also how it would be treated in publication. So our multimedia team, video team, especially photographic and all the editors, we worked together. The multimedia was broken into parts: women, children, men, all explaining life under ISIS. In those segments you wouldn’t have to then click on something else to go into a new part, it would just roll through.
What impact did the story have?
Most importantly for me it was to tell those stories — the people there. They are incredibly brave, hospitable and strong people and to have gone through those many years under ISIS control and come out the other end with dignity. To show they want the same things as any other family, any other individual in the world, is important.
There was a mother, I was standing next to her son in his last days. He was burnt horrifically due to the impact from bombing, and he died a couple of days after we photographed him. That mum has lost all three of her children to ISIS. To tell her story, that was important.
I hope we brought the reality of what people had gone through, and how they were surviving, to our readers. I hope that they empathise with what people had gone through, and are still going through. In any minute you can become a refugee, or an IDP, or a victim of war by circumstance. It doesn’t matter where you live.
We just hoped it would impact on our readers. The world was watching it, it was one of the biggest things that was happening in 2017.
What made you want to be a photojournalist?
I love people and I love history, so I wanted to tell people’s stories. I know that’s cliche, but it’s basically what drives me. Photojournalists in Australia, and overseas, are dedicated to telling people’s stories. I take it very seriously, the responsibility of informing people correctly of what’s happening. We are very ethical practitioners, very factual, at the Herald and The Age.
What are you most proud of about the stories you’ve told?
My pieces on Iraq. I am very honoured have gone there on many occasions to tell their stories. It was the first place I ever went to, it was the first war I ever went to. They have very much touched my heart, the Iraqi people.
There are so many stories. Every story we cover is as important as the last. The Rohingya story I did in November 2017; their stories are no less important than anyone else’s, be it politicians in Australia or sporting events.
How does working overseas differ to working in Australia?
The way that you work, the way that you respect someone, is no different at home or abroad, you offer the same level of respect. Your ethics don’t change, it doesn’t matter where you are in the world. But of course in conflicts, and the aftermath of conflicts, in humanitarian crises or environmental disasters, there are different challenges. Covering bushfire or floods at home is no less dangerous than abroad. Covering a conflict is wildly different to covering NSW politics, for example, but the same ethics carry all the way through.
Language is obviously a barrier. So you work with a team — you’ve got the translator, the driver, the journalist and yourself. That’s why I have started studying Arabic. I’m very early stages, but it’s just so that I can connect more with people.
Are your photographs more driven by research and preparation, or reacting in the moment?
We’ve had hostile environment training, chemical warfare training, first aid, all of that kind of stuff. That training kicks into gear and you remember elements of it when you’re in intense situations. I think experience comes into play as well.
In Ukraine, I had never been there before 2014, so I didn’t know who the different players were, or the different groups. So you do research, you try to memorise what military patches look like, understand the historical context. So that when you arrive at a checkpoint, you can work out who is controlling that checkpoint. Or when you’re talking to a politician or a rebel leader, you need to know their background. So, of course, that research comes into play.
Taking photographs, it is happening in front of you. But if you’re taking a photograph in a really hostile environment then your training makes you aware of how to safely photograph. Even culturally, going into a particular area you might dress more conservatively, or you understand the cultures and traditions so you won’t offend anyone.
What’s your message to Australians about why quality journalism needs their support?
Quality journalism and Australian journalists provide a continuity in reporting and documenting our society. I think it’s fundamental to our society to have independent, investigative journalism. Our job is to document our society.
The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have covered every conflict that Australians have been involved in since World War 1. Think of the way that we relate to ANZAC day or to Australian soldiers. I would like to think that photographers have taken a role in building our national identity. Imagine never having that. Imagine all of the newspapers shutting down. Where would you get independent reporting? And not just in Australia, but also Australian journalists overseas telling an Australian audience how this affects us.
What’s next for you?
I am currently based in Bangkok for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. I’ve been covering international stories for our readers, Anwar Ibrahim, Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, the Cambodian election, the impact of Chinese investment in Cambodia, and I am about to go to Democratic Republic of Congo and a couple of other assignments in the Middle East, basically really covering the region.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Australia is really blessed to have the world’s best photojournalists, extraordinarily talented and driven photographers. With the research and planning for “Stories from Mosul”, Michael Bachelard and I worked very closely together on what we would cover and how we would do it — it was an extraordinary time to be covering Mosul with him.
Kate Geraghty started her photographic career in 1997 at The Border Mail. She joined Fairfax in 2002 and since then has covered stories around the world, including the Bali bombings, the 2003 invasion of Iraq, stories in Afghanistan, war in Lebanon, the 2004 tsunami, sexual warfare in the Congo, the East Ukraine war and downing of MH17, the refugee crisis in Europe, the independence of South Sudan and the civil war that followed, the drug wars in the Philippines and the liberation of Mosul. Geraghty has won nine Walkleys, including being named Nikon-Walkley Press Photographer of the Year in 2007, 2013 and 2017.
Follow her on Twitter: @geraghtyk
See all the winners of the 2017 Walkley Awards here.
*Interview by Gemma Courtney, The Walkley Foundation
The Nikon-Walkley Press Photographer of the Year Award is supported by Nikon Australia.
