Why I Spend Hours Sketching in Conflict Zones | George Butler | TED

Drawing has become one of the few moments in my life that I get to be present with somebody.

It's a chance to be with them and connect, which I think is very rare in this world.

My name is George Butler, I'm a reportage artist and that means going to different parts of the world, drawing humanitarian crisis, conflict zones, natural disasters and recording the stories that I find there.

I spend a lot of time drawing in places that are typically very loud.

Busy scenes around the edges of atrocity, and I'm just sitting and drawing, focusing on someone's eyebrows or their face, or the way that their eye catches the light.

Someone's telling you this sort of heartbreaking story, and you're trying to record or relate something that you've seen in their face onto a page to best describe it.

That's my role. To inform and offer dignity and understanding and connect one side of the world with the other.