The Tao of War Photography

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Veteran photojournalist Bruce Haley has seen the worst of us. He’s covered conflicts stretching back to the Afghan battle against the Soviet Union. For his work on Burma’s bloody ethnic civil war, he received the Robert Capa Gold Medal, which honors photographic reporting that requires exceptional courage.

Ten years ago, Haley wrote this timeless essay, arguably more relevant today than when it was originally drafted. (It appears here excerpted and renumbered, but is available intact online at www.brucehaleypictures.com.) It’s part training manual and part memoir, mostly tragic and a little bit hilarious.You can also read an interview with Haley about his work. —The Editors

1 To begin, practice this sentence: “If I get out of here alive, I’ll never do this again.” You’ll say this to yourself every time an already dangerous situation really turns to shit.

2 As a general rule, people don’t catapult 10 feet into the air when an artillery round explodes near them, despite what Hollywood war movies depict.

3 The editors of major magazines don’t give a rat’s ass about the latest war and famine in the hinterlands of East BurkinaTimorLanka. You’ll never get an assignment to cover this unless Leo­nardo DiCaprio becomes a rebel commander and Tommy Hilfiger designs his battle fatigues.

4 Absent Leo and Tommy, a few murdered white tourists will cause a temporary blip on the radar screen . . . or not.

5 True anarchy sucks. Forget those tie-dyed, dreadlocked white kids in university towns who advocate hemp and “anarchy”—if the real thing ever happens, those assholes will be on the bottom of the food chain.

6 If a rebel commander asks whether you would like to be buried in his country or your own, he might very well be serious and not just testing your resolve.

7 If the rebel commander from #6 sends you along on what turns out to be a kamikaze mission, it could be because the British journalist accompanying you happened to fart during dinner the previous evening, causing said leader and his aides to rise silently and file out of the small mountain hut (a very, very bad sign).

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