From the Guardian blurb: He quit his job to continue covering the Afghanistan conflict, got shot during an ambush but went back again six months later. Photojournalist John D McHugh explains why he has returned once more.
I am back in Afghanistan for the fifth time in two years. I have a lot in common with the British, Canadian and American soldiers deployed in the country. Like many of them, I have been here before and I have been under fire. And, dubious though the honour is, I am a member of an even more exclusive club: I have been shot during a gunfight.
There are differences between us, too. I am a photojournalist, not a soldier. I carry cameras and a notebook, not a gun. In the heat of battle, I am trying to stay alive, not trying to kill. The biggest difference - the one that surprises all the soldiers I meet - is that more than volunteering to be here, I overcome many obstacles to be an observer in this war zone.
I have worked extensively in Afghanistan since 2006, spending a total of six months here. I was one of the first journalists to spend time with British soldiers from 16 Air Assault when they deployed to Helmand. This was in April 2006, when much of the British public still accepted the government's line that the mission was about reconstruction. The defence secretary had said he hoped "the mission could be completed without firing a shot", which seemed unlikely at best, and disingenuous at worst.
The Canadian deployment in Kandahar started in the spring of 2006 and I spent almost a month with a reconnaissance unit from the 1st Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. I travelled all over the province with these guys, and while they got into gunfights, raided compounds and captured Taliban fighters, they explained that back home the public were being told their mission was about "peacekeeping".
When I photographed a raid in which Taliban fighters were captured, it made front pages across Canada and sent shockwaves through the country. I was denounced as a liar and accused of misrepresenting the events. I gave several television interviews countering claims by some members of the Canadian media that the prisoners had been mistreated.
Despite the fact the Canadian military initially tried to prevent me from releasing the photographs, citing the Geneva conventions, I did release them into the public domain. The images are now used by the Canadian army for training purposes. ...
I will admit I was hooked on the story in Afghanistan. Not the danger or adrenaline, as many suppose, but the story itself. I could see that the reality on the ground was very different to the story being told back in the west. My photographs weren't getting published much, and the agency I worked for was not interested in sending me back there, but I had no stomach now for day-to-day press work in London. I wanted to be back in Afghanistan, reporting what I believed - and still believe - to be a hugely important story.