Plàcid Garcia-Planas does not purport to be a war correspondent, rather someone who wanted to face the “narrative challenge” of explaining this kind of situation well. “It has been photographed and written about badly; and it continues to be written about badly, because it is explained from a romantic pathos that only seeks to reflect the pain of the other, but war is much more than that”.

Indeed, beyond the pain, war is a story that takes place “while ignorant armies clash by night”, explained the journalist, quoting  Matthew Arnold.

There is an air of the philosopher in the reporter’s writing.

Garcia-Planas offers another approach to the narrative of war: that of lyricism, and that of paradox. “These are the two elements I found for the stories I wanted to write. “In fact,” he asked his audience, “isn't the first western lyrical work of poetry also a story? The Iliad”.

And so, with his gaze and that of the photographer –“the storyteller’s perfect ally”, he says– he seeks “extraordinary stories that come from ordinary things”. That's why “I recommended to a freelance journalist, who was just starting his career and was asked to cover the conflict in Gaza, to go to the beach and report on young surfers enjoying the good weather during the war”.

That is: lyricism. And contrast.

“I have seen many corpses in Ukraine,” says Garcia-Planas, “in really dramatic situations, like that headless body... two photographers –Guillermo Cervera, who I have worked with often, and an American– and myself. It was awful. How do I explain it? Because at the end of the day, you have to explain. ‘A description of his condition is unnecessary’, I say to the reader; ‘a few minutes ago he was alive. Now, it is so awful I will spare you the image’. That is the power of language you cannot get from a picture”.

And it is the power of the journalist who knows that he is talking about people. And that “there is no such thing as objectivity, only honesty”. However today, “amidst so much punditry, so much superficial tweeting, the life you can capture in a god story has been lost... The first casualty of war is not the truth, but the nuances”, he says. And nuances are sought after. That’s the journalist’s job.

“It is the need to be surprised, because the world is surprising”. The surprise of a farmer who watches, amazed, as a journalist and a photographer hide in the bushes to escape the bombs, while he tries to live a normal life; or the surprise of seeing a man dressed as a mug, seemingly unconcerned about what is happening a few kilometres away.

A good war correspondent is not addicted to war, but to storytelling. “That's why I take the risk. You might cover many, but the worst one is the one you have within yourself. In the end, a journalist travels for two or three weeks at a time. Then they go home. For me, the war has helped me be better at many things: to understand what really matters”.