Paolo Pellegrin: Witness to history

Paolo Pellegrin says it is a miracle that he is still alive. In July 2006, at the height of the month-long conflict between Israel and Hizbollah militants in Lebanon, the Italian-born photographer was driving through downtown Tyre with a writer. "We came across a man who had been hit by a missile, so we got out of the car to approach him," Pellegrin recalls. "I could tell straight away he was still breathing, but he was obviously about to die."

Before Pellegrin could get any nearer, a second missile hit the dying man, who lay just metres away. "I was hit by shrapnel in my head, and suffered concussion and a destroyed eardrum," he recalls. "But at the moment the missile hit, we were shielded by our car. Later, I looked at the other side of the car – there was nothing left."

The missile strike was the closest the photographer has come to death but, speaking with a languid modesty in a New York hotel, where he is covering the US elections, he tells the story as if it were unremarkable – just another day in the office. In many ways it was; for much of his adult life, Pellegrin, who is 43, has witnessed the darkest, most tragic face of humanity, in some of the most dangerous places on earth. On assignment for publications including the New York Times and Newsweek, he has dodged bullets on the West Bank, fled a drunken gang in a moonlit Liberian cemetery, and witnessed the lynching of suspected spies in Israel.

Now, Pellegrin, who joined the prestigious Magnum agency in 2005, is publishing a glossy book of some of his best photographs. Featuring images shot over a period of nine years, As I Was Dying covers some of the greatest upheavals of recent times, from a violently dispersed demonstration by Turkish Kurds in 1998 to the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan.

Pellegrin developed a passion for exposing social injustice and suffering while studying architecture in his native Rome, when he took a course in social anthropology. So affected was he by what he learnt, he decided to quit architecture – he had followed his parents into the profession – and take up photography instead. "It combined things I was interested in, artistically and on a human level," he explains.

His early work included a study of homelessness and immigration in Rome, but he was soon drawn further afield – and into more extreme territory. "After Kosovo in 1999, which was the first real conflict I had been to, my interest in humanity became more about seeing it in extraordinary conditions, where you see the worst of man, but also the best of man – the courage, the desire to live. I thought it was worthwhile."

Since then, Pellegrin has hardly stopped to take stock of an extraordinary career, during which he has won almost every major award in photojournalism, including five World Press Photo first prizes. He says As I Was Dying is about "trying to make sense of the things I've seen".

Pellegrin belongs to that select breed of journalist who keeps a "war bag" ready at all times, full of the tools of his trade, ready to grab and go at the shortest notice. Many have tried to delve into the psyches of these men and women – to find out what makes them tick, and how they cope with what they see.

"It's always difficult to explain," Pellegrin says. "What drives me to keep shooting is the idea that I am serving a function. Photography has this extraordinary capacity to document man's experience. I always think of concentration camps in the Second World War. We have written documents, but if a revisionist historian were to challenge them, there are pictures – just as today there are pictures of what is happening in Darfur."

But Pellegrin's photographs are more than historical snapshots. Possessing an almost poetic quality, many of his images are blurred, appearing almost unfinished. "I work a lot in low light so there are technical reasons for this," he explains. "But there are also artistic motives. I see photography as a bridge between the subject and the viewer – like a hand that comes out, or the beginning of a conversation. I like leaving something unsaid so that the viewer can fill in the missing piece."

Following the tradition set by his heroes, who include his Magnum stablemates Josef Koudelka and Gilles Peress (whose work in Northern Ireland in the 1970s won international acclaim), Pellegrin prefers to shoot in black and white. "I think it works on a more symbolic level than can be achieved with colour," he says. "It allows pictures to carry greater meaning. A colour photo of refugees in Sudan shows what happened the day I was there. In black and white, I think the same photo has the capacity to be more than that – to speak about the condition of refugees at large."

What separates Pellegrin and other photographers is their confidence to keep shooting when others would run or shy away. But they are human too. "As a photographer I am always invading somebody's space, and in extreme situations that space is even more special," he says. "You always look for authorisation to be there, even if that is tacit – just a feeling. If that agreement is not there, it becomes very difficult to stay. I have a whole gallery of images in my memory that I haven't taken."

'As I Was Dying', winner of the Leica European Publishers Award, is published by Dewi Lewis, £25. To order your copy at a special price (including free p&p), call Independent Books Direct 08700 798897