Photographing war, disease and nuclear accidents with Simon Townsley

On this week’s episode of Battle Lines Global Health Security, international photojournalist Simon Townsley joins Arthur Scott-Geddes and Sophie O’Sullivan to share his most memorable photographs of 2025. 

From visiting mpox quarantine zones in Sierra Leone, to bat caves infected with marburg virus, Simon explains the value and pitfalls of ‘parachute’ journalism.  

This year alone, Simon has traveled to Sierra Leone, Guyana, Sudan, Chad, Zambia, Honduras, Kazakhstan, and Burundi. He reflects on how the world has changed in his nearly 40 years of work, and why now people often mistake him as Chinese.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/X5p4hvB_cSA

View Simon's images:

Guyana’s oil bonanza: Will the vast wealth it is generating ever trickle down?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/terror-and-security/guyana-oil-boom-wealth-inequality/

‘It’s all dead now... nothing will grow’: Fish and hippos dissolve in polluted acid river

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people/zambia-river-pollution-china-industrial-investment/

Inside the Red Zone: Sierra Leone’s terrifying mpox outbreak

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/inside-sierra-leones-terrifying-mpox-outbreak/

Atomic bombs destroyed their lives – now they want Russia to pay

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/terror-and-security/soviet-union-nuclear-testing-atomic-bomb-kazakhstan/

‘I poured gasoline then set fire to my clothes – the flames shot up my body’

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/women-and-girls/kurdistan-iraq-suicide-self-immolation-domestic-violence/

‘My child is gone... life is empty’: agony of Ukrainian mother collecting her son from the morgue

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/terror-and-security/child-gone-life-empty-agony-ukrainian-mother-collecting-son/

Producer: Sophie O'Sullivan

Executive Producer: Louisa Wells

Studio Operator: Meghan Searle

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