As Australia's premier war photographer - and as a former soldier - Gary Ramage has been in and out of just about every conflict zone that Australia has ever been involved in. He's been embedded with troops, lived, eaten and slept alongside them. Through good times and bad times, through rocket attacks, firefights and funerals, from photographing mass graves in Kosovo to being in East Timor when SAS troops were ambushed, from sleeping under the stars on patrol with Aussie soldiers in Afghanistan to helping out with CPR on a wounded soldier on a medivac chopper, he's been there and documented it.
It takes special grit to be a war photographer - it's an extreme and dangerous job. At least 25 journalists / photojournalists have been killed in Afghanistan alone since 2001. Journalists, cameramen, photographers - they've all been captured, tortured and executed. Risk comes with the territory.
This is a high adrenalin, sometimes moving, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, entirely gripping story of a man who's living an extraordinary life, documenting some of the most confronting and moving moments in international conflicts and our recent history. Here is the story behind the pictures.
About the Author
After five years as an infantry soldier, Gary Ramage trained as a military photographer and he is now the News Limited Group’s chief photographer at the National Press Gallery in Parliament House in Canberra. Ramage won the prestigious Nikon Walkley Award in 2012 for his images of the war in Afghanistan.
Mark Abernethy, the ghostwriter, is a journalist, novelist, ghostwriter and speechwriter. Currently with The Australian Financial Review, he has written for Inside Sport, Good Weekend and The Weekend Australian and is a former regular contributor at The Bulletin.
