YouSaid · the spoken record

Seamus Murphy

lines on the record: 76
first: 2025-09-03
most recent: 2025-09-03
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I've just come from Ireland, and it's all still there. And in fact, I think that what happened was when the Celtic Tiger happened and then there was that terrible crash, they reckon, you know, it is reckoned that the Irish learnt a lesson. I hope they have because it did seem like, you know, things were, as the Irish say, they lost the run of themselves. And it was all about status. It was all about accumulating properties and all the rest of it and going into huge debt. And I think people have learned that lesson. I've just come from there. There's a wonderful atmosphere. There's a very small minority, very small minority of people that are heading towards this far right anti-immigrant action, very, very, very noisy on social media. So it sounds like, you know, it's everywhere. It's not. Actually, I discovered it wasn't. But I think Ireland, I think they've learned the lesson from the Celtic Tiger. I think it was a pretty shallow place back then.”
2025-09-03 · Conversations with Tyler · Seamus Murphy on Photographing Patterns Across Cultures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I just think the times have moved on and it's no longer just women at weddings writing this poetry. It's a reflection of the modern world.”
2025-09-03 · Conversations with Tyler · Seamus Murphy on Photographing Patterns Across Cultures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Can Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, it can be. And in fact, you can go to the most remote little village, and of course, they're always going to have fantastic bread, you know, the meal, the food is very much a part of the social thing and the tea, the green tea, and the bread. And then, you know, depending on the season, they're going to have wonderful fruits. Food is good. Food is good. Very meat-based. You know, vegan would have a hard time, I think.”
2025-09-03 · Conversations with Tyler · Seamus Murphy on Photographing Patterns Across Cultures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it is only traditional people there. Also, again, you've got the trauma of the Rana Rag war where, you know, a lot of people were killed and they're dealing with loved ones who'd killed in the war and betray that, betray them. That keeps people loyal. I think it's the same in the West, you know, I mean, in America, people will be loyal to whoever president you have. And because they've lost people in wars, the veterans, you know, it's very hard to break away from that. You have to tear up your history and say, no, no, this is wrong or, you know, I think it's loyalty in some ways.”
2025-09-03 · Conversations with Tyler · Seamus Murphy on Photographing Patterns Across Cultures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think in the case of Afghanistan, they're traumatized. I think there is definitely trauma. They've been at war for over 40 years. Even if you do meet people in Arlington or in DC or wherever, you know, they're carrying that with them. They're dealing with family that are still there. This is going to have an effect on you. This is not an easy thing to deal with. So maybe that has something to do with it. I mean, I think in Iran, and I suppose it's it the Iranians or is it the theocracy? I don't know what's holding it back. You're right. I mean,”
2025-09-03 · Conversations with Tyler · Seamus Murphy on Photographing Patterns Across Cultures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I didn't write that. That would have been Eliza. I think Eliza Griswold, a friend and journalist. We did this project together. Why is that I suppose modesty, I really couldn't tell you actually why. Tradition for some reason.”
2025-09-03 · Conversations with Tyler · Seamus Murphy on Photographing Patterns Across Cultures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Moment of the kind of fear I think that you could imagine a girl like that whether she was afraid of the time, I don't know. Maybe she was frightened of the camera. Maybe she was frightened of this white guy taking a photograph. I just don't know. But I think it also captured the beauty of that girl. And that's another thing about Afghanistan. And people are absolutely beautiful. They're very, very striking. I think that's important to see that side of it.”
2025-09-03 · Conversations with Tyler · Seamus Murphy on Photographing Patterns Across Cultures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Misleading? No, I don't think so. I mean, the picture, she's looking pretty terrified. But the thing, of course, you've got to remember photography is that photograph was probably taken in the fraction of a second. And two minutes before that, she might have been smiling and two minutes later she might be crying. The intent of the, you know, it's a chain of, it's a process. I mean, the person takes the photograph. The photograph gets disseminated. how it's used was used i think on the cover of national geographic i presume they had a much wider in fact they did they had a much wider story on what was going on in afghanistan if you read the story you'd be filled in on what was going on it was a very striking”
2025-09-03 · Conversations with Tyler · Seamus Murphy on Photographing Patterns Across Cultures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, well, actually, it's from Pakistan. It's from the border. I think that family had fled the Soviet invasion and they were in the border. I think it was in the tribal areas, probably Peshawar.”
2025-09-03 · Conversations with Tyler · Seamus Murphy on Photographing Patterns Across Cultures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think, you know, like anything really, whether it's news or whether it's photography, you know. You do things that in some ways will capture people's attention. You're trying to communicate something. And so rather than having 10 pictures of something boring, the 11th picture with someone doing something interesting will be the one that you like, that you strive for. And so the most dramatic, you know, the most intense will be the images that make it onto the news or in the newspapers. That's just fact. But I think if you're interested in the subject and you start looking at the diversity of books out there and the collections of photographs from Afghanistan, there's a lot there of human life, daily life. It's not all doom and gloom. But, you know, I think it's also understanding the news business, you know, that it is this thing of headlines and it is news. So people want to see something new, something novel. And there's a superficiality to that for sure.”
2025-09-03 · Conversations with Tyler · Seamus Murphy on Photographing Patterns Across Cultures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not anymore no, no, no, that was back in 1997. I was there in 96 when the Taliban took over the first time. That was when they were stringing up television sets and undoing videotape. I mean, they say that it's idolatry to in any way lionize the human face. That's why when you go to a mosque, you never see any faces. You do come across it sometimes somebody will give you some kind of chapter and verse that in the Quran it says this about photography and you go well when was the Quran written and when was photography invented?”
2025-09-03 · Conversations with Tyler · Seamus Murphy on Photographing Patterns Across Cultures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Afghanistan is particularly difficult because they have some kind of inbuilt radar when they know there's somebody with a camera. They just know it. And as soon as they detect it, they start shouting at everyone, there's a guy with a camera, there's a guy with the camera. So it's very difficult to turn up somewhere and do something candid or even just to relax the atmosphere. It's a carnival thing. But I think what you have to do is you have to work around that. They love having their photograph taken. And so you kind of play with that and you try and catch them as naturally as possible. And a lot of the time you think pictures are crowned and actually in actual fact you've been talking to the person and there's a moment and you get it. So that's good. But yeah, the biggest difficulty in Afghanistan is that people love to be photographed. So that can be a little bit tedious.”
2025-09-03 · Conversations with Tyler · Seamus Murphy on Photographing Patterns Across Cultures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, yes, I love traffic jams. I love when we've come from the Shimari plain in the north, you know, racing down the highway three at a time overtaking. And then eventually you get to the outskirts of Kabul, Harhana, and I breathe a sigh of relief as we slow down and it takes an hour to get the rest of the way, which is not very far. It's terrifying. Yeah, it's very, very slow. Very slow.”
2025-09-03 · Conversations with Tyler · Seamus Murphy on Photographing Patterns Across Cultures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My biggest fear always is a car crash, you know, because I think they reckon that more foreign correspondents get killed in car crashes than in any conflict zone. I'm always terrified. And also if you're hiring a driver, they're always trying to prove themselves that they're faster and they'll get you somewhere in a hurry. And I always tell them, please, please just calm down. And that would be my biggest fear. And it's always my biggest fear, whether it's India or Afghanistan or any other place”
2025-09-03 · Conversations with Tyler · Seamus Murphy on Photographing Patterns Across Cultures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, no, I don't think so. Like in Iran, you know, on the one hand, they're saying death to America, outside of the mouth, they're saying my brother lives in Michigan. America is sort of saint and sinner for everyone.”
2025-09-03 · Conversations with Tyler · Seamus Murphy on Photographing Patterns Across Cultures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In some ways safer than ever before, but I'm a man and I'm a Westerner and I don't have any particular history of shouting about the Taliban or fighting the Taliban. So for me, it's easy enough. Law and order is very strong. If people rob things, they might get their hands chopped off. That has an effect. So as an outsider, as a Westerner, it's safe in as much as a place like that can be safe. There's always the possibility of kidnapping, you know, and there are other elements that the Taliban, more extreme elements than the Taliban, you know, Afghan ISIS and those people would be very dangerous. But go to Kabul, it's very safe.”
2025-09-03 · Conversations with Tyler · Seamus Murphy on Photographing Patterns Across Cultures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We know life goes on any place like Afghanistan where I've been, you arrive having read reports and you get there and you think, oh my God, life must be so affected by this. Well, of course it is. But life goes on. And it's quite extraordinary that they're not going to stop having children. You know, they love their children.”
2025-09-03 · Conversations with Tyler · Seamus Murphy on Photographing Patterns Across Cultures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Opens up themselves to more outside influence and things normalize. That would be a good scenario. And I was thinking that when I was there, that actually it's a very strong possibility. Eventually that'll happen. Because I think also the country needs it. The country needs it economically.”
2025-09-03 · Conversations with Tyler · Seamus Murphy on Photographing Patterns Across Cultures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think reform from within, and I think I was there last in December, and what I found was there's definitely the younger Taliban, probably most of the Taliban, do not want the draconian rules that are being brought in banning girls going to school. They want their sisters and their daughters to go to school. It's widespread. And it's not just in the cities. I came across this in the country as well. So I think there are definitely it's the leadership in Kandahar that's, and one or two people, really. So I think that's maybe not going to last forever. And hopefully there will be some kind of internal... Recalibration, and the Taliban.”
2025-09-03 · Conversations with Tyler · Seamus Murphy on Photographing Patterns Across Cultures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't know. I can't see anybody other than the Afghans going in and doing something, unless we had another 9-11. I mean, the only reason in a way the Taliban were kicked out in 2001 was because of 9-11. No, no one was caring. No one was looking at Afghanistan. They were very interested when the Soviets moved in. You know, the Cold War continued in Afghanistan. There was vested interests. The Americans poured billions of dollars of arms into the country. And, you know, by indirect means created the Taliban. But, you know, now it's the idea of a Western force going in there and trying to source something out. I can't see it happening politically. No.”
2025-09-03 · Conversations with Tyler · Seamus Murphy on Photographing Patterns Across Cultures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The people that were giving the money, the West should have been more vigilant. I think they knew what was going on. If they really wanted to solve the problem of corruption, they could have done more. But they must have known 2010, 2015, how things were going. Everyone knew there was corruption everywhere. And they continued to spend the money. And then, you know, when the time came, they said, well, we've spent all this money, nothing to show for it. We're getting out. But they're the ones who spent the money. So surely there's some responsibility there.”
2025-09-03 · Conversations with Tyler · Seamus Murphy on Photographing Patterns Across Cultures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think when the Soviets invaded, it was something like four or five hundred thousand people. We're now looking at 4.5 million, something like that. The infrastructure doesn't keep up with it. When the NATO were in for 20 years, there was road building. There were projects that should have modernized the country, but there's also a lot of corruption, you know, corruption set in fairly early on. And you could say that was the Afghans' fault, but I think actually...”
2025-09-03 · Conversations with Tyler · Seamus Murphy on Photographing Patterns Across Cultures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't know. I mean, you know, 79 was the Islamic Revolution. 79 was the invasion by the Soviets. There was things stirring in the region. I suppose extremists were maybe heeding the coal from Saudi Arabia. I don't know. I'm not an historian. But it does seem too coincidental that these two things happened very close to each other. There was things going on. And you're right. I mean, you look at photographs in the 50s, the 60s, you know, the people dressed like people in the West. You look at pictures now and it's like going back 100 years, 200 years. But, you know, it's happened around the world, hasn't it? You know, religious extremism. It's not peculiar to Afghanistan. I think just Afghanistan's had a very bad taste of it because they do have, they are in a strategic position where they can be exploited.”
2025-09-03 · Conversations with Tyler · Seamus Murphy on Photographing Patterns Across Cultures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think they do get on with each other. I mean, there are tribal differences like anywhere. I think people want to get on with each other. And I think it'll be some upstart politician, someone who sees a way to make profit for themselves or make a name for themselves. They'll stir up trouble. Vested interests in other countries will promote one leader overnight. That's where the problem lies. I don't think it's the Afghans themselves. They're like you and me. They're actually better at times than you and me. I mean, they really are harmonious people, very poetic, very able to have a laugh. You know, I've seen people make jokes in the worst of circumstances. So I think the thing about Afghanistan is if they were left to their own devices, they would be fine. But unfortunately, they never have that luxury.”
2025-09-03 · Conversations with Tyler · Seamus Murphy on Photographing Patterns Across Cultures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's tough for anyone, but I think for Afghans, it's particularly tough because they have such a love for the country. So I would say, you know, the diaspora is probably the, because people in Afghanistan can't do much, you know, they have to go along with whatever the authorities are saying. They're pretty impotent.”
2025-09-03 · Conversations with Tyler · Seamus Murphy on Photographing Patterns Across Cultures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The optimism that I would have for that country would be the people, and I think I've got a lot of faith in the people. You know, we have this impression of Afghanistan as being very conservative, very, you know, extreme. It's not at all. There are very easygoing people, and they've been in the middle of a lot of trouble, usually caused by people on the outside. You know, they're a small country, they're strategically between many powers. And, you know, they've had a lot of problems in their time. I think the optimism I would be looking towards would be the diaspora, I suppose, the people that have left, the people that might be able to do something from outside. They're certainly keeping people alive by sending money back. So I would say also people to love, their love of their country is something special. It's not a sort of silly patriotism. It's really, really deep in their veins. And, you know, it's one thing to have problems in your country and all the rest of it, but to actually have to leave your country.”
2025-09-03 · Conversations with Tyler · Seamus Murphy on Photographing Patterns Across Cultures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source