Shows
The War We SeeArtistic resistance and the visuality of aerial imperial violence …with David Birkin (Part Two)This episode is the second half of my fascinating conversation with David Birkin, artist, writer, and Senior Lecturer in Photography at the London College of Communication (University of the Arts London). In Part II, we discuss Visible Justice, the wonderful transdisciplinary network David and his colleague Max Houghton co-founded in 2018 at the University of the Arts London. The Visible Justice research hub brings together practitioners and thinkers from across art, activism, journalism, photography, film, writing, and human rights law who engage critically with the relationship between visual culture and social justice, creating spaces for collaboration beyond disciplinary boundaries.
2026-02-041h 01
The War We SeeArtistic resistance and the visuality of aerial imperial violence …with David Birkin (Part One)This is Part One of a very special two-part episode with David Birkin, artist, writer, Senior Lecturer in Photography at the London College of Communication (University of the Arts London) and currently, a Visiting Fellow in Art History at the University of Cambridge. David is known for a wide-ranging body of photography-led installations and large-scale visual performances that confront state violence and imperial power, while also enacting forms of creative resistance to them. In a conversation that is as emotionally resonant as it is captivating, we explore his practice and the questions that shape it: how images circulate power...
2026-01-281h 16
The War We SeeAgency and power in contemporary conflict imagery, photographing youth combatants in West Africa, and the Hetherington archives…with Katy ThorntonThis week, I’m joined by fellow Imperial War Museum (IWM) doctoral researcher Katy Thornton (King’s College London), whose research uses the photojournalist Tim Hetherington’s archives at the IWM to examine the fascinating power dynamics between photographers, their subjects, and contemporary culture. Using her own background as a youth worker and academic grounding as a sociologist, Katy explores the intricate relationship between the photographer and the photographed within the context of youth combatants in West Africa between 1989 and 2003. In this evocative and stimulating conversation, we discuss her incredibly nuanced approach to a deeply complex subject, Hetherington’s own rema...
2026-01-071h 28
The War We SeePhotographing and filming war, bearing witness to human stories from the frontlines, and revisiting the Bosnian War 30 years on with “Unconquered: Goražde City of Heroes”…with Fiona Lloyd-DaviesIn this episode, I’m joined by award-winning documentary filmmaker and photojournalist Fiona Lloyd-Davies, whose fearless storytelling has placed her on the frontlines of global conflict for more than three decades. From the besieged towns of Bosnia to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Fiona has used her camera to expose human rights abuses and amplify voices that often go unheard.We explore her remarkable career, from her early work during the Bosnian war including work on the BAFTA-winning The Unforgiving, to her own extraordinary filmmaking, such as Ordered to Rape, which revealed the use of sexual violence as a...
2025-12-171h 34
The War We SeeTerrorist imagery, navigating sensitive content, and innovating the curation of online collections…with Dr Ali FisherThis week, I’m joined by Dr Ali Fisher from Human Cognition Ltd. and Università Cattolica in Milan. Ali’s work bridges strategic communications and data science to counter emerging threats in complex information environments, such as political disinformation campaigns, online child sexual abuse networks, and the exploitation of online platforms by terrorist groups. Ali is the creator of Mujahid Mind AI and the BlackLight data feed - tools that provide near real-time insights into Salafi-Jihadi exploitation of the Internet, which, combined with his decades’ long familiarity with the subject and his own training as a historian, mean he is uniq...
2025-12-031h 41
The War We SeeRepresentation, access, and the artist in the world of war art…with Rebecca NewellMy guest this week is Rebecca Newell, Head of Art at the Imperial War Museum (IWM) and lead curator of the fantastic Blavatnik Art, Film and Photography Galleries at IWM London. Rebecca brings the stories of war art to life in this fascinating conversation, taking me through the history of the IWM’s vast collections of 20th and 21st century art, and breaking down how hugely influential the work of artists has continued to be in witnessing, documenting, and informing audiences, even with the accelerated rise of film and photographic depictions of war. In perhaps the most uplifting end to al...
2025-11-191h 00
The War We SeeAtrocity imagery, historical film restoration, and using film evidence in war crimes tribunals…with Dr Toby HaggithThis week, I’m honoured to be joined by Dr Toby Haggith, Senior Curator in the Department of Second World War and Mid-20th Century Conflict at the Imperial War Museum, and someone who both specialises in film restoration and working with Holocaust imagery. Toby is one of my favourite historians and curators, and this was a thrilling and illuminating conversation where we discuss the painstaking process of restoring films, the challenges of working with atrocity imagery, especially from the Holocaust, and why the way in which both the moving and still war image are presented and perceived, is al...
2025-11-051h 11
The War We SeePhotographing systems of control: Extraordinary Rendition and bringing the DoD’s declassified documents and image archive to public view…with Edmund Clark and Crofton Black.In this episode, I’m joined by not one but two guests, authors of Negative Publicity (2015) and the soon-to-be-published Cosmopolemos: An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of the United States Department of Defence Contract Spending from 2001 to 2021. In this wide-ranging conversation, artist and photographer Edmund Clark and investigative journalist and writer Crofton Black explain their unique approach to research, combining forensic investigations of declassified documents with photography to shed light on systems of military power and hegemonic control. Their widely exhibited and rigorously researched work is immensely thought-provoking and important, offering rare insight into a fiercely protected world. Listener...
2025-10-221h 14
The War We SeeFilm archives, combatant photography, ISIS photo-propaganda, and the UK’s first exhibition on sexual violence in conflict…with Helen Upcraft**Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of graphic violence in one small section, specifically from minute 43 to minute 44, about some ISIS images, which depict scenes of extreme violence**Imperial War Museum (IWM) Curator Helen Upcraft joins me for a conversation about her work in the museum’s film archives, including the experience of working on Peter Jackson’s First World War documentary They Shall Not Grow Old (2018); a wide-ranging discussion of key curatorial practices around visual material and the challenges of born-digital content; the increasing number of combatant photographs in the IWM’s collections; the select...
2025-10-081h 13
The War We SeeDrones, photo reconnaissance, and the weaponised camera...with Dr Chris FullerIn the very first episode of The War We See, Dr. Chris Fuller, Associate Professor in Modern History at the University of Southampton, joins me for a truly historical examination of photo reconnaissance, drone imagery, and the military's increasing weaponisation of the camera, especially within the context of US military innovation, the Gulf War, and the ongoing war in Ukraine.Links to Chris' selected images:Image 1: Screenshot in https://www.c-span.org/program/news-conference/defense-department-news-briefing/11876( To view the image within the screenshot, see p.17 https://www.airandspaceforces.c...
2025-09-241h 33
The War We SeeIntroducing...The War We SeeHave you ever wondered how much of our understanding of war comes from what is visually presented to us? What factors determine what we see of war? And who decides what is recorded, censored, or shared? Introducing The War We See, a new podcast on war imagery that explores these questions and more, through fascinating conversations with an eclectic selection of guests.
2025-09-1603 min