Redemption plays a bigger role than making war in photographer Ryan Lobo's new show titled War and forgiveness that opens today

Ask Bangalore boy, international photographer and documentary filmmaker Ryan Lobo about the thrills and chills of being in the war zones of Afghanistan, Iraq and Liberia where he shot the subjects of his show War and Forgiveness, and he will surprise you with his response. For Ryan says that more than war and its after effects, it's the power to forgive and absolve people of their crimes which he witnessed, made this photographic journey have a bigger impact. In 2007, Ryan travelled to Iraq, Afghanistan and Liberia and had a front row view of other people's suffering, the debilitating effects of war and feared for his life on more than one occasion.


Still from The Redemption of General Butt Naked

Ryan, whose works have been screened regularly on the National Geographic and Animal Planet channels and also has been a speaker on compassionate storytelling at the TED India in 2009, will present the story of these war torn areas and people as viewed through his lens in this show. Ryan is also producer of the film Redemption of General Butt Naked, a documentary shot on a Liberian war criminal turned evangelist who is believed to have murdered more than 10,000 people during the country's civil war. The film won for best cinematography at this year's Sundance Film Festival. In a candid chat with the Guide, Ryan tells us why photographs speak more than sensational documentaries sometimes, why forgiving someone is more powerful than killing and being fortunate enough to live and tell this tale.

How was the experience of shooting in crisis torn Afghanistan, Liberia and Iraq?u00a0
I have come away from war with a sense of guilt which for a long while I could not explain. I wondered what use it would be to exhibit photographs, of faraway wars in India until I decided that the most depressing thing about working in war zones was not the fear of death. It is seeing the same thing, perhaps the seeds of the same thing within us, myself, in our conversation and in the way we treat our own people.u00a0