How stepping on an IED changed Giles Duley's life
WARNING: This article contains graphic descriptions of injury, violence and war
When photojournalist Giles Duley became a triple amputee while embedded with a unit in Afghanistan in 2011, his life changed - for the better.
“I stepped on an IED and was thrown in the air. I didn’t lose consciousness. It was absolute silence… but I remember a big white heat and looking up at the sky where I could see parts of me in the tree above.”
As the medivac helicopter whisked him away, he had a flash forward.
“I remember so clearly thinking about the things I still wanted to do. Really clearly. It was beautiful. I dreamed about having kids and maybe owning a restaurant down in Dorset. A calmness descended and my vital signs became stable.”
Years of deep depressions and challenges in his earlier life gave Giles a certain strength, prompting a journey which, after 46 days in intensive care, saw him shun any thoughts of what he couldn’t do.
“The experience bore gifts.”
In Nicky Campbell’s ‘Different’ podcast for 大象传媒 Sounds, Giles shares his journey from music and fashion photographer to CEO of the Legacy of War Foundation and creator of the ‘One Armed Chef’ documentary series.
“My mum was a servant in a country home in the 1930’s where all the food was homemade. Suet puddings, bread, roly poly, you name it. Being around that as a child inspired a love of food in me, and food became a therapy.”
But it wasn’t until six years ago, when Giles returned from documenting the fighting in Mosul (yes, with just the one arm and two prosthetic legs), that his love of food grew into a passion.
“I came back in a very dark place and I was trying to find something to distract myself… and so I started cooking and literally did not stop all night. I’d be cooking for days…I realised that I need, in my life, food to be the balance of war.”
Giles has witnessed the most horrific scenes imaginable in conflict zones worldwide. Most recently in Bakhmut.
“The scale of the conflict in Ukraine is hard to comprehend. It’s like the first world war. We were outside these huge hospitals. We counted. Every five minutes, ambulances were arriving with severe casualties. Every fifteen minutes, the morgue van would arrive. And it was just non stop 24/7 24/7.”
He talks of an unlikely friendship forged in Cambodia with a villager who narrowly escaped the Khmer Rouge genocide.
“Olive’s whole family was killed, her two children, her husband, her parents, while she was in hospital giving birth. She was taken away by the militias and was one of only three survivors out of 2000.”
It was Olive’s unwavering faith in forgiveness which led her to introduce Giles to the man who had murdered her family.
“We did a long interview. It just felt like I was in the presence of evil. He did everything apart from take the blame.”
He is going back for more recordings and hopes to gain a deeper understanding about why people cross the line to become killers.
Wherever Giles is in the world, it is important to him that he isn’t pigeonholed as someone with a disability.
“My greatest disability is in the eyes of others.”
In fact, his instagram account ‘The One Armed Chef’ was in part response to an excruciating date where his steak was brought to the table already cut up. A further incident in a restaurant in Italy really got the ball rolling.
“I got to the restaurant late and they’d stopped serving food. So I thought I’d just stay and have a couple of drinks… which ended up with shots of Grappa into the morning.”
Still hungry, Giles snuck into the kitchen and started cooking.
“Now nothing upsets an Italian chef more than an Englishman going into his kitchen… but I made a perfect egg yolk ravioli which is quite hard to make with two hands, and gave it to the chef. I took a picture of it, and now, when I go to a restaurant and they ask if I want my food cutting up, I just show them the picture and say, ‘I made that with one hand.’”
In addition to using his camera to document conflict in war zones, Giles now travels the world cooking with people and photographing them as he learns their stories.
To hear the full, fascinating conversation with Giles and Nicky, just search ‘Different with Nicky Campbell’ on 大象传媒 Sounds.
