Previous | Next :: Ken Lukowiak : Writer and Fighter : Insight Passage London | June 19, 2007, 12:28 am

Below is the caption to the previous image it tells you why Ken is featured on the 25th anniversary of the ceasefire in the Falklands War, this is a portrait of Ken Lukowiak part of a set I shot for a book jacket of one of his books...... I think? He is sitting in the Cafe outside the old Insight Building (my agents) in London. We loved those cafes outside the office.... we thought we were living in Paris and took in turns to be Jean Paul Sartre. Ken was one of the few writers to hang out at the Insight office. He was like a photographer himself nothing would appear in print unless he saw it with his own eyes, he never used anyone elses research or wire material he only wrote about what he actually witnessed. We did some crazy trips together.

http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/MP-40309/A-Soldier

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Soldiers-Song-True-Stories-Falklands/dp/0753807572

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Marijuana-Time-Ken-Lukowiak/dp/075282127X

Ken Lukowiak my old friend........ Paratrooper and writer.......... poet and fighter....... crazy drinker........ absolutely decent man.......... fiercely loyal true friend........ here he is returning to the Falkland Islands 15 years after the war ........ he had been a member of 2 Para and had fought with his unit to retake the islands from the occupying Argentinean forces sent by their Military Junta ......... 2 Para had fought desperate actions in the darkness and watched their friends suffer and die........ they had rewritten the tactics manuals........ and come through victorious ......... but at a heavy cost to themselves and with even greater cost in lives to their enemy. Here 15 years after the battles were over Ken stands in respect at Blue Beach Cemetery where the Argentinean conscript soldiers who died in those battles are buried. Some young Falklands kids who had driven us out to this lonely place played music and chatted by their Land Rovers as if they had no idea what this place was. Ken angrily shouted at them to show respect "did they have no idea how many men were buried here?"....... "Not enough!"...... one joked back...... Ken exploded "You might not think that if you had to put them here yourself!" he shouted........Then they were silent........ Ken returned to his contemplation and his respectful visit to each grave.... he read their names but did not know the ones he had personally killed. This was as important a trip for the ex soldier as to the graves of his friends colleges and commanders. It was important it should be done properly and with respect. The light broke through the sky beyond, I tried to make photographs that befitted this moment. Very few if any of the British soldiers that fought here ever had the chance to return and walk these battlefields or pay their respects at the graves of the fallen. These desolate graves are kept immaculate but rarely ever visited. The government of Argentina refused to have the bodies repatriated as for them these men are of course already buried in Argentinean soil.

Cheers Jez XX