The UNP Top 20 Conflict Photographers

Opinions, Photo Education, Photo Talk, The UNP Top 20

The UNP Top 20 Conflict Photographers

06/07/2026

I have had the honour to meet, know and speak with many photographers who have dedicated their lives to the documentation of conflict. Photographers who have literally put their lives on the line, to ensure that those who are not so brave or committed see what is often hidden or denied. All have been serious, deep-thinking, politically informed and empathetic. What they have seen, and the impact it has had on their lives cannot be denied. In my experience, it has been in the slow, considered manner of their speech, or in an intensity within their gaze. This personal list contains some of those people, and others whom I have not met, but whose work I believe needs to be known and respected. As always it is in no particular order.

Don McCullin www.hamiltonsgallery.com/artists/don-mccullin/series/conflicts/

Lynsey Addario www.lynseyaddario.com

W Eugene Smith www.magnumphotos.com/photographer/w-eugene-smith/

Lee Miller www.leemiller.co.uk

Matthew Brady www.getty.edu/art/collection/person/103KK9

Roger Fenton www.loc.gov/collections/fenton-crimean-war-photographs/about-this-collection/?__cf_chl_f_tk=nOZ0YerYEFNpElbPB4rIsUP2aG.SJqN3mmLmRE9A4n8-1783245253-1.0.1.1-enyPW6rSB0Ox5AF_xcFxOj9sVp4oAUH2UQoU0wGOl_o

Phillip Jones Griffiths https://philipjonesgriffiths.org

James Nachtway www.jamesnachtwey.com

Julia Kochetova https://kochetova.rocks

Tom Stoddart www.tomstoddart.com

Susan Meiselas www.susanmeiselas.com

Robert Capa www.magnumphotos.com/photographer/robert-capa/

Larry Burrows www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/larry-burrows

Tim Hetherington www.iwm.org.uk/history/contemporary-conflict/libya/tim-hetherington

Chris Hondros www.chrishondrosfund.org/testament-gallery

Robert King www.theguardian.com/film/2009/aug/21/shooting-robert-king-review

George Rodger www.georgerodgerphotographs.com/war-in-europe

David Butow https://davidbutow.com

Tyler Hicks www.nytimes.com/by/tyler-hicks?eafs_enabled=false

Anastasia Vlasova https://www.noorimages.com/anastasia-vlasova

Dr.Grant Scott
After fifteen years art directing photography books and magazines such as Elle and Tatler, Scott began to work as a photographer for a number of advertising and editorial clients in 2000. Alongside his photographic career Scott has art directed numerous advertising campaigns, worked as a creative director at Sotheby’s, art directed foto8 magazine, founded his own photographic gallery, edited Professional Photographer magazine and launched his own title for photographers and filmmakers Hungry Eye. He founded the United Nations of Photography in 2012, and is now a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, and a BBC Radio contributor. Scott is the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019), What Does Photography Mean To You? (Bluecoat Press 2020) and Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories, (Orphans Publishing 2024). His photography has been published in At Home With The Makers of Style (Thames & Hudson 2006) and Crash Happy: A Night at The Bangers (Cafe Royal Books 2012). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was premiered in 2018.