Irish photographer Seamus Murphy was born in England in 1959, grew up in Dublin, made his escape to the USA after college, where he lived in New York and San Francisco and now lives in London. He has over 30 years experience working as a documentary photographer all over the world and is the author of four books, including A Darkness Visible the result of 14 years shooting in Afghanistan. As mentioned earlier, he is the recipient of seven World Press Photo awards for his work in Afghanistan, Gaza, Lebanon, Sierra Leone, Peru and Ireland and received The World Understanding Award from Pictures of the Year in 2005 in the USA. The film he made on his Afghan work - also entitled A Darkness Visible - won the Liberty in Media Prize in 2011 and was nominated for an Emmy. He has worked with musician PJ Harvey on film and photography projects including their most recent collaboration The Hollow of the Hand. His latest book The Republic, a personal portrait of Ireland, was published in March 2016. And it was with The Republic that we started off.