This Is War evolved out of my work as a photographer covering some of the bloodiest conflicts of the late 20th century. The imagery is not pretty, nor could it be. But seeing it—looking squarely at the misery delivered by leaders who promised to do good for their people—is important. More than that, refusing to see it, whether out of personal or political discomfort, is a form of misinformation. The book tells the story of war through the experiences of both civilians and combatants. The civilians were entering a labyrinth of grief that they would occupy for the rest of their lives. Many of the combatants naively viewed war as an opportunity, only to discover that their bodies were mere fodder for the powerful. I first picked up a camera in El Salvador in the mid-1980s. I photographed the bodies that the notorious death squads left on street corners at night. In the early ’90s, I was posted to the former Yugoslavia, and later, to Africa. Unscrupulous leaders, driven by ego, profit, and ethnic, religious, …