The “What is the Motivation of Risk” session at the International Film Festival “Exposure” reviewed the experiences of three specialized war photographers whom moderator Ray Wells considered lucky to return from death: Michael Christopher Brown, Afshin Ismaili and Paul Conroy.

Photographer Ray Wells presented the photographers as unusual people, watched things that most of us would not like to see, and experienced things that were too ugly that we did not want to happen to any of us, and showed a video summarizing the experience of photographers.

The photographer Michael Christopher spoke at the beginning of the session about his experience in covering the events of the war, especially as he grew up in a very quiet environment in western America, and his father was a doctor. "I lived in Libya seven years ago and these conflicts and shelling were fought, I was hit by an explosion and I lost half of my blood from that injury," said Michael Christopher, owner of the Libyan Sugar Fair at the festival.

He continued: «You think that you will not return as a journalist to that area, especially since you suffered a serious injury, but in the end you feel that you are involved in the case and return to continue your work from where you left off».

Michael Christopher showed the audience a number of photos he had taken in Misrata under shelling and sniper bullets. "I was hit by an explosion," he said. "Those who were walking right in front of me were killed. Suddenly my colleagues were far from me. I tried to run to a safety zone and went up in a truck that was passing by." "I asked her driver to take me to a hospital, and then I went into a coma."

For Afshin Ismaili, the subject is quite different as he was born and raised in a conflict zone, as he lived in a mountainous area between Iran, Iraq and his father was a warrior.

"I have not had a normal childhood," Afshin Ismaili said. "I lost many of my family in the war. There are hundreds of children who have lived my life, so I wanted to bring their voice to the world and monitor the impact of war on them."

"I thought these conflicts and wars would stop sometime," Ismaili said. "I waited a lot for that to happen, but I found out that it would not end, but it could be changed, and this is what I am trying to do through my work as a photojournalist."

Ismaili stressed that the photojournalist in the war does not receive the necessary attention, but is exposed to various types of danger, and then taken from the pictures he took under very difficult circumstances without indifference to his person. Afshin Ismaili said he was attacked by two suicide bombers in Mosul in 2006. "I narrowly escaped one of the suicide attacks. I saw the suicide bomber and exchanged gaze for a few seconds. I was surprised that he did not press the blow button. I ran away with my colleagues and then we heard the sound of the explosion."

"ISIS operatives were using drones, and there was a purge of them. My colleague and I fled and went up to a hill. From an unknown location, an ISIS operative was killed, my colleague was shot and wounded in my legs."

Finally, Paul Conroe talked about taking a difficult trip with his colleague Mary to Syria, and pointed out that in 2012 he was banned from entering Syria, so he and his colleague sought refuge in some smugglers in Lebanon. Paul Conroy said one of the smugglers told him that fighters in Homs were killing anyone from the media and that the situation there was very dangerous. "To get to Homs, my colleague and I had to cross a long dark tunnel and suffered oxygen shortage," he said. Paul Conroy stopped at some pictures in his memory, which he still remembers, as the raids lasted 18 hours a day, the debris spread everywhere, and the smell of blood was visible. Paul Conroy said that while he was in a room with his colleague Mary and some of the activists were hit by direct missiles, he said: «I remember that a rocket landed directly at the door of the room and Mary was standing in front of him beside another person and died immediately, while I was seriously injured in my legs».

The three photographers concluded by stressing that the danger should not stop the photojournalist to a certain extent, but that the feeling of fear is sometimes the motivation for the person to move forward, and the transfer of the stories of innocent responsibility borne by the photographer because of his humanity.