FORMER White Horse News reporter, Sam Tarling who grew up in Bratton, is in Iraq covering the unrest as a photojournalist for The Telegraph newspaper.
Sam is in Erbil in Northern Iraq where Islamist militants are battling Peshmerga fighters for control of oil fields. After working for the White Horse News Sam moved to Lebanon and started working for a newspaper there. He is now a freelance photojournalist.
Sam said, “It’s been a bit of a roller coaster so far. Two hours after getting my assignment I was at the airport, in Beirut, where I live, and an hour after landing I was about 30 miles outside Mosul, which the day before had been taken over by hardline Sunni Islamist militants. It’s quite relentless but I’m enjoying the challenge as well. The biggest challenge is managing to keep up with events as they evolve but still managing to find deeper, less reactive stories and have them ready to be printed in time for deadline. I’m not sure how long I’ll be out here for, I guess it depends on whatever will happen next.”
As a photographer Sam has covered a wide range of issues across the Middle East and beyond, including the war in Syria and the ensuing refugee crisis, the 2010 uprising and subsequent unrest in Egypt and the war in Libya. He has worked for some of the world’s leading press organisations including The New York Times, AFP (Agence France-Presse) and The Guardian as well as aid organisations such as Save The Children, Action Aid and Oxfam.
Sam’s photography career has also taken him to South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Bosnia and Kenya. You can see more of his photographs at www.samtpho to.com. His latest photos from Iraq can be viewed at www.telegraph.co.uk.
