In Conversation with Paul Conroy
War photographer Paul Conroy on working with Marie Colvin, the formidable journalist killed in Syria.
Colvin had already lost an eye to a grenade; a decade later she was killed in an airstrike. Paul Conroy wrote a book – now a documentary film – recounting her last moments and the tragedy being inflicted on the Syrian people.
Paul Conroy is a freelance photographer and filmmaker who works in the British media. A former soldier with the Royal Artillery between 1980 and 1987, he has since worked extensively as a journalist in combat zones, producing footage from conflicts in the Balkans, the Middle East, and Libya. In 2011, he was shortlisted for the PRX Bayeux TV report along with Marie Colvin, a war correspondent with The Sunday Times.
Paul’s experiences as a war correspondent have most recently been documented by the immensely successful film, ‘A Private War’.
Saleyha – It was during her non-medic role of Medical Support Officer in Bosnia that Saleyha was inspired and encouraged by her military medical commanders to apply for medicine. As a result, she found herself at medical school in Dundee and never looked back.
After leaving the army, Saleyha continued to travel into hostile environments, but this time as a filmmaker and freelance journalist. She has worked and written for the BBC, Channel 4 News, the Guardian and online news, Latitude News.
Saleyha is currently nervously awaiting her results for her Masters in International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, from Essex University. She undertook this program in order to support her work with Medical Justice as a volunteer doctor, assessing victims of torture who are seeking asylum.
In addition to this, she is currently on the Diploma in Conflict and Catastrophe Medicine and has a BSc in Chemistry, while also working as a Staff Grade in A and E in London. As well as studying, she is also in the editing stage of her latest documentary about frontline medicine in Libya, having just returned from six months out there working as a volunteer medic and filming Libyan volunteer doctors working during the battle for Bani Walid.
