Photography, it’s hard on the legs
FREELANCE photographer Guy Smallman has been in the wars and has the scars to prove it. Three injuries to his lower limbs have left him needing union backing to win fair compensation.
It was in June 2003 that he was attacked by riot police in Geneva while covering protests against a G8 summit.
A stun grenade exploded right underneath him, leaving him with permanent damage to his left leg. For five years with NUJ support he has been pursuing a case through the Swiss courts, which he won last year — only for the state to win an appeal last October.
He is now bringing a further appeal to the Swiss Federal Court — backed by graphic video evidence of the incident.
Then in July this year he was injured in Afghanistan, where he was photographing and writing about refugee camps near Kabul.
In a freak accident, a sharp rock was hurled against his right leg when it flew from under the spinning wheel of a taxi caught in a pothole and gouged out a big hole.
He was treated locally but was due to fly back the next day and the NUJ arranged for him to have specialist treatment at Frankfurt airport, where he was changing planes.
Three months later he was taking pictures of a protest against an arms factory in Brighton when a police Alsatian was unleashed on him. The dog bit him in the genitals.
Fortunately, this time, the injury was not serious — his boxer shorts took the brunt of the bite.