Quote: "The ability to keep things in perspective is very important for a journalist. In a tense situation you need the ability to be there, yet somehow step aside; to keep a cool head and keep working without getting frustrated."
Philip Jones Griffiths joined Magnum Photos in 1966 and became a full Member in 1971.

Philip Jones Griffiths
British (Welsh), b. l936

Born in Rhuddlan, Wales, Philip Jones Griffiths studied pharmacy in Liverpool and worked in London while photographing part-time for the Manchester Guardian. In 1961 he became a full-time freelancer for the London-based Observer. He covered the Algerian War in 1962, then moved to Central Africa. From there he moved to Asia, photographing in Vietnam from 1966 to 1971.

His book on the war, Vietnam Inc., crystallized public opinion and gave form to Western misgivings about American involvement in Vietnam. One of the most detailed surveys of any conflict, Vietnam Inc. is also an in-depth document of Vietnamese culture under attack.

An associate member of Magnum since 1966, Griffiths became a member in 1971. In 1973 he covered the Yom Kippur War and then worked in Cambodia between 1973 and 1975. In 1977 he covered Asia from his base in Thailand. In 1980 Griffiths moved to New York to assume the presidency of Magnum, a post he held for a record five years.

Griffiths's assignments, often self-engineered, have taken him to more than 120 countries. He continues to work for Life and Geo on stories such as Buddhism in Cambodia, droughts in India, poverty in Texas, the re-greening of Vietnam, and the legacy of the Gulf War in Kuwait.

Griffiths continues to reflect on the unequal relationship between technology and humanity, summed up in his book Dark Odyssey. Human foolishness always attracts Griffiths' eye, but, faithful to the ethics of the Magnum founders, he still believes in human dignity and in the capacity for improvement.

Exhibitions

2006 Fifty Years on the Frontline - Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona,
USA
2005 Fifty Years of Frontline - Denise Bibro Fine Art, New York, USA
2004 Agent Orange - Side Photographic Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK
1996 Dark Odyssey - National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, UK
1992 Retrospective – Madrid, Spain
1990 Retrospective - Photofest, Houston, Texas, USA
1985 Magnum Concert - Musee d’Art et Histoire, Fribourg, Switzerland
1985 Magnum Photographs: 1932-1967- Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York,
USA

Books
2005 Vietnam at Peace, Trolley, UK
2003 Agent Orange-Collateral Damage in Vietnam, Trolley, UK
1996 Dark Odyssey, Aperture, USA
1992 Philip Jones Griffiths: una vision retrospectiva (1952-1988), Consorcio
para la Organizacion de Madrid Capital Europea de la Cultura, Spain
1979 Bangkok, Amsterdam Time-Life, the Netherlands
1971/01 Vietnam Inc., Collier, USA; Phaidon, UK