tragedy; Dramas of war and disaster

Gulf War, January 1991. Tel Aviv suburb after an Iraqi Scud attack. Photograph by David Rose: 'Total darkness and confusion. I only realised the woman was carrying her gas mask after the film was processed. In fact, there were just a few casualties of gas in Israel. They were the people asphyxiated in the first week: they wore their masks incorrectly'

Clapham Rail Crash, 35 dead. Photograph by Glynn Griffiths: 'I've witnessed many horrible events - some you know are going to happen, some you watch develop, and others, such as Clapham, come with a phone call. The press was only able to see the site after the emergency services had removed all the casualties, and then only in small groups, for a very limited time, and from one designated vantage point. Back at The Independent darkroom, I was one of several photographers all processing essentially the same image. When we came to compare prints, the only difference between mine and the others was that mine was photographed and printed as a vertical image. I think that, compositionally, it enforced the horror and spent energy of the two crossed and

entwined trains' Afghanistan (above), July 1988, six months before the Soviet withdrawal. Photograph by John Voos: 'I spent 24 hours with an outpost at the edge of Russian-held territory on the perimeter of Kabul. Later, we saw them exercising, and many had plaster crosses on their heads where they'd been cutting each other's hair'

Kuwait checkpoint, March 1991. Photograph by John Voos: 'A month after the Gulf War ended, we were inland from Kuwait City, driving past the oilfields,and I saw this man on an office swivel chair, protecting the fields from invasion' The King's Cross Fire (above):Kwasi Afari-Minta survived but 31 people died in the disaster in November 1987. This photograph by Glynn Griffiths was taken in 1989: 'Kwasi had to wear a moulded mask to soften the scar tissue before going for plastic surgery. The particular tragedy of this was that he was a musician but his fingers were welded together in the fire.'

One who didn't survive: Croatia, July 1991 (right). Photograph by David Rose: 'This was in the village of Marjanci. The mourners were around the coffin of a national guardsman killed in heavy fighting between Serbs and Croats' Belfast, July 1989 (far left). Photograph by Herbie Knott: 'There'd been an incident and, like all soldiers in Belfast, this squaddie is using his sights to check windows and roof tops -

you never know when you're going to get a bullet. The combination of the army and the public is a bizarre meeting of opposites.' Zeebrugge, Belgium, 7 March, 1987. The sinking of The Herald of Free Enterprise with 193 dead. Photograph by John Voos: 'We were in the pub, the Angel, near the office, when someone rushed in and said a ferry had sunk. We jumped in a car and took the next ferry over, but nothing could be done until the next day. We went to a local airfield,

found an English pilot and hired a light plane. It got very ghoulish later when the crowds turned up to have a look'