Finding Life in a Lens · Giles Duley Photojournalist Giles Duley focuses less on conflict itself than “what happens around it” - how civilians navigate life against a backdrop of brutality: “I don’t document war, I document love,” he says, “You don’t see tanks, soldiers or planes in my pictures, you’ll find an old woman brushing her granddaughter’s hair, a mother feeding a baby, families cooking.” He has been spending long periods in Ukraine with the Legacy of War Foundation, the charity he founded to provide help to civilians living in conflict zones. Since a life-changing accident in 2011, when he stepped on a landmine while out with US troops in Afghanistan, Giles has been a triple amputee; he continues to visit and document how lives shape shift around war, advocating for people compromised by it. When he is at home in Hastings, he touches base with sea and sky, an uncomplicated horizon with “no sense of change – it’s a counterpoint to everything else I see,” he says. Here, in his raised ground floor apartment overlooking the English channel, there are clues of his interest in everyday civilian lives – mostly, food – on every shelf: towers of cookbooks, giant jars of pickled broccoli, morels and cucumbers made by Ukrainian babushkas, which he has hauled back in suitcases. Leveling and deeply emotive, food is, he says, “a lovely way to start a relationship”, and he always tries to cook or eat with people prior to taking their picture. Read more about Giles Duley and his craft on the #TOASTMagazine via the link in bio. Giles Duley (@gilesduley). Words by Mina Holland (@minaholland). Photography by Elena Heatherwick (@elenaheatherwick).