Dealing with the Plumber

People often ask me, “How do you live in New York after having such an adrenaline filled life? It must be so boring dealing with the plumber after all that.” I think that there’s a slight schizophrenic quality to the life of a war photographer. When I was starting out, there’s no question that I damaged personal relationships because I didn’t know how to resume my life in New York when I returned from a trip. Eventually I realized that there are different types of reality, and that each exists as itself. It’s important for me to participate fully in my New York life. I can’t just shut down and say, “Oh, I’m a war photographer. I only deal with extreme situations.” It would be very dangerous for me to return home and sit in a dark room until the phone rang, sending me back to the next war. It would also damage the quality of photography that I produce in that war, because if you don’t understand the sensibilities of your audience, the photographs won’t succeed.

Ron Haviv:Born in 1965 Haviv first came into prominence when he covered the violent Panamanian elections in 1989. Since that time he has covered most of the major conflicts around the world, and has been beaten, imprisoned and placed on a Serbian death list as a result. He has published two books, Blood and Honey: A Balkan War Journal, and more recently Afghanistan: The Road to Kabul. He is a founding member of the agency VII.