Kate Geraghty: The Photographer Who Runs Toward Danger

Most people will do anything to get away from danger. Kate Geraghty runs into it for photos like these Kate Geraghty is a Gold Walkley Award-winning photojournalist and The Sydney Morning Herald’s chief photographer. She has been photographing war zones and disasters, both natural and man-made, for 25 years at the Herald. Her first assignment was the 2002 Bali bombings. The following year she went to Iraq and became the first woman at the Herald to photograph war. In the decades since, she’s taken the Australian public inside the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, and conflicts across the Middle East and Europe through the lens of her camera. Her job often involves months of careful planning and coordination, which can go out the window in a split-second when missiles start firing. “The nature of war is so fluid that you just have to roll with the punches, and just document what’s happening,” she said. “But really, at the end of the day, none of these challenges is anything compared to the civilian population and what they’re going through.” Her work has been featured in coverage of major events including the aftermath of the Bondi massacre, where police used powers to restrict protests in key areas of Sydney following a Hanukkah celebration attack in mid-December that killed 15 people. These restrictions were later struck down by a court as an impermissible burden on constitutional freedoms. Geraghty has also documented legal proceedings, including photographing former SAS soldier Ben Roberts-Smith after his arrest and charge with five counts of alleged war crime-murder. He spent his first night in Sydney’s Silverwater prison following his arrest at Sydney Airport. According to Geraghty, what makes a photo stand out when so many have become desensitized to images of war and suffering is emotion. “It creates a conversation,” she told nine.com.au in an interview to mark the paper’s 195th anniversary. “In the sense that someone walking past sees the newspaper and the image will stop them in their tracks,” she said. “They want to know more. They want to know what’s happening.” That is what makes a good photograph. “She should know,” the article notes, given her quarter-century of frontline documentation.