Documentary & War

We are pleased to invite you to ‘Documentary & War’, the next event of the ‘Geopolitics and …’ series which looks at how geopolitics shapes the arts and humanities, and how they in turn shape geopolitics. Robert Capa, the famed Hungarian-American war photographer and photojournalist, once said: ‘If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough.’ Imagery played a crucial role in reporting to and educating an audience about conflict zones throughout the twentieth century. In the age of social media, these functions are omnipresent and more important than ever before. On 30 January 2025, we are going to explore the role of documentary photography and filmmaking in the context of armed conflicts and humanitarian crises. ‘Documentary & War’ will address the military, political, cultural, artistic, and ethical aspects of photojournalism and strategic communications in emergencies. Our speakers, Jeremy Adelman, James Langan, and Anastasia Taylor-Lind, will approach the topic from theoretical and practical perspectives as well. The event will be followed by a drinks reception. Early booking is advised. Please note the event will be recorded and shared on our YouTube channel.

Jeremy Adelman is the Director of the Global History Lab at the University of Cambridge and the Henry Charles Lea Professor of History Emeritus at Princeton University. The author and editor of a number of books about Latin America and world history, his most recent works include Narratives, Nations and Other World Products (2024), Inventing the Third World (2022), and the forthcoming Depending on Strangers: Arguments about Global Integration since Adam Smith to be published in 2025 with Princeton University Press.

James Langan is a currently-serving Royal Air Force officer. He was commander of the UK Ministry of Defence’s Combat Camera Team during the Kabul evacuation in 2021 and the evacuation of Sudan in 2023. A storyteller, tasked with capturing and sharing the accounts of Afghans and UK military personnel, ensuring their experiences were heard and understood. His content has received significant international attention, with his stories featured on the front pages of various newspapers and across leading global outlets. Most recently his work was used in the BAFTA-winning 3-part series ‘Evacuation’. James’ research interests include Russian and Taliban information operations and disinformation. In 2023 he was awarded a Fellowship at the University of Cambridge.

Anastasia Taylor-Lind is a photojournalist and a poet. She has been photographing and writing poems about the war in Ukraine since it started in 2014, and her book MAIDAN- Portraits from the Black Square (GOST Books) documented the 2014 Euromaidan Revolution. In 2023 she received the Canon Female Photojournalist Award for her long-term reporting from eastern Ukraine, and over 100,000 people visited her exhibition ‘Ukraine: Photographs from the Frontline’ at the Imperial War Museum. Anastasia is a National Geographic Society Explorer, TED Fellow, and 2016 Nieman Fellow at Harvard university. Her first poetry collection One Language was published by Smith|Doorstop in 2022.

Host or Publisher Centre for Geopolitics