Brent Stirton: Rotting Souls

Stirton’s photography doesn’t flinch. He photographs what breaks down—ecosystems collapsing, bodies marked by disease and conflict, the raw material of documentary that most outlets won’t run or want to see. The title itself, Rotting Souls, suggests something theological in the grimness, but it’s really just what happens when you point a camera at the parts of the world that profit from invisibility. He works for National Geographic and other publications, but the pictures don’t feel corporate—they feel like the only honest thing in a room full of polite lies. I’ve always respected photographers who know that clarity requires unflinching proximity.