Rebels gather for the funeral of a fellow fighter in the rebel-held Salahedin district. Aleppo, Syria. March 21, 2013. Photo: Moises Saman/MAGNUM A man marching with a group of pro-Muslim Brotherhood demonstrators in the Maadi district of Cairo walks past graffiti that shows a hand raising four fingers, a symbol of the Rabaa massacre. Cairo, Egypt. August 18, 2013. Photo: Moises Saman/MAGNUM Searching for survivors among the rubble of a residential building targeted by a regime airstrike in the rebel-held Al-Sukri district of Aleppo, Syria. March 19, 2013. Photo: Moises Saman/MAGNUM A protestor stands by a burning car during clashes near Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt. November 20, 2011. Photo: Moises Saman/MAGNUM A wounded Pro-Muslim Brotherhood protestor covered in an Egyptian flag inside the Fatah mosque in the Ramses district of Cairo, Egypt. August 16, 2013. Photo: Moises Saman/MAGNUM Fatma Al-Krama is surrounded by family members as she sits next to the body of her dead son, 25-year-old Habib Al-Krama, tortured and killed by pro-Assad militias in the city of Aleppo. Habib's body was found dumped on a city street and brought back to his village for burial. Marea, Aleppo Province, Syria. July 23, 2012. Photo: Moises Saman/MAGNUM Fellow demonstrators carry the lifeless body of a man fatally wounded during clashes between pro-Muslim Brotherhood demonstrators and Egyptian security forces in the Ramses district of Cairo, Egypt. August 16, 2013. Photo: Moises Saman/MAGNUM A man selling pretzels climbs the wall of a destroyed house damaged during clashes between youth protestors and Egyptian police near Tahrir Square on the second anniversary of the January 25th revolution. Cairo, Egypt. January 25, 2013. Photo: Moises Saman/MAGNUM Clashes between youth protestors and Egyptian police near Tahrir Square on the second anniversary of the January 25th revolution. Cairo, Egypt. January 25, 2013. Photo: Moises Saman/MAGNUM Protestors throw rocks at Egyptian security forces protecting the area near the US embassy in Cairo, Egypt. September 14, 2012. Photo: Moises Saman/MAGNUM A nurse and her patient inside a Muslim Brotherhood operated hospital in the Shobra district of Cairo, Egypt. January 2012. Photo: Moises Saman/MAGNUM A Syrian boy inside the Al-Muhamra tent settlement in north Lebanon. June 2013. Photo: Moises Saman/MAGNUM Thin mattresses and pillows used as beds inside a one-room apartment that houses an extended family of seven Syrian refugees in East Amman, Jordan. June 2013. Photo: Moises Saman/MAGNUM A villager upset at the government complaints to Afghan President Hamid Karzai during a visit to Marja after it was retaken by U.S. and Afghan forces from the Taliban, Marja, Helmad Province, Afghanistan. March 7, 2010. Photo: Moises Saman/MAGNUM Afghan soldiers carry a wounded comrade into an American medevac helicopter after a Taliban ambush near the village of Tsunek, Kunar Province, Afghanistan. March 2010. Photo: Moises Saman/MAGNUM Marja's new district chief Hagi Zahir (far left-top) meets with local elders in Marja's district center. Marja, Helmand Province, Afghanistan. March 2010. Photo: Moises Saman/MAGNUM A German soldier burns a flare at a temporary campsite in the desert of Kunduz Province, Afghanistan. October 2009. Photo: Moises Saman/MAGNUM A boy covers his eyes during a sandstorm in the southern city of Kandahar, Afghanistan. March 2005. Photo: Moises Saman/MAGNUM Omar Ben Brahim Ahmad, 73, lost sight in his right eye from a mining accident in 1987 while working inside the underground phosphate mines on the outskirts of Metlaoui, Gafsa Province, Tunisia. February 24, 2013. Photo: Moises Saman/MAGNUM A boy covers his head with a plastic bag during a rain storm, Jalalabad, Afghanistan. March 30, 2004. Photo: Moises Saman/MAGNUM An Afghan girl recovers from burns to hear face caused by a kerosene explosion inside her home. Kerosene, a dangerous combustible, remains a cheap source of heating for poor Afghan families. Gardez, Afghanistan. May 22, 2005. Photo: Moises Saman/MAGNUM Congolese women living at the Buhimba camp for Internally displaced people outside Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo. September 2009. Photo: Moises Saman/MAGNUM An Iraqi man walks by the scene of an attack on U.S. Army Humvees that caused several American casualties in the Al-Waziriyah neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq. Monday, April 26, 2004. Photo: Moises Saman/MAGNUM A man tries to tame an Arabian horse looted from one of Saddam Hussein's palaces in Baghdad, now being kept in the backyard of a house in the Sadr City district of Baghdad, Iraq. July 2004. Photo: Moises Saman/MAGNUM Iraqis search for a suspected American pilot that was reported shot down over the Tigris River in Baghdad during the first days of the war. Baghdad, Iraq. April 2003. Photo: Moises Saman/MAGNUM Funeral procession for Essam Ali Atta, 23, a petty criminal that was killed by prison guards while serving a two-year term in Cairo's high-security Tora prison following his conviction in a military tribunal earlier this year for an apparently petty crime. Essam was reportedly attacked by prison guards after trying to smuggle a mobile phone sim card into his cell. Cairo, Egypt. October 28, 2011. Photo: Moises Saman/MAGNUM A Qaddafi supporter holds a portrait of the Libyan leader as fireworks go up in the background on a soccer field in a suburb of Zawiyah where government minders took a group of foreign journalists to attend a staged celebration. Libya, March 9, 2011. Photo: Moises Saman/MAGNUM A Libyan Army tank belonging to the Khamis Brigade destroyed by NATO bombing on the outskirts of Tripoli, Libya. Kilometer 27. August 24, 2011. Photo: Moises Saman/MAGNUM A meeting room in an underground bunker used as a command center by Qaddafi security forces in Tripoli, Libya. September 16, 2011. Photo: Moises Saman/MAGNUM Mikele is an Eritrean survivor of torture camps in the Sinai. He poses for a photograph at a safe house in Cairo, covering his face with a cross to hide his identity, and displaying multiple torture marks on his upper body. Cairo, Egypt. May 2, 2013. Photo: Moises Saman/MAGNUM

Moises Saman is one of the leading conflict photographers of our time. In recent years, he has worked in Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, and Libya. In the August Issue of WIRED, Saman's photographs and interviews from Aleppo in Syria accompanied Matthieu Aikins' article about bomb-makers in the rebel homemade arms industry. The assignment was Saman's third visit Syria since the onset of civil unrest in March 2011. Early in the conflict, he documented protests against the regime in the cities of Hama and Homs and in 2012, Saman was in Aleppo shortly after the Free Syrian Army had taken control.

As a follow-up, we asked Moises Saman to talk about the changing times in Egypt, his mindset in war zones, the pressing issues for today's photojournalism, and what he's been reading. We also exclusively share Saman's personal edit of his career highlights.

WIRED: In your observations, how has the conflict in Syria changed in the past two and a half years?

Moises Saman (MS): Dramatically. What started as a homegrown peaceful protest movement against the regime has morphed into a full-on civil war with a vicious sectarian undertone. The presence of foreign elements on both sides of the conflict has added another layer of complexity, making it even harder to find a solution to end the conflict. In the meantime, the humanitarian crisis resulting from the civil war has reached an epic level, with close to 2 million refugees now seeking shelter in countries bordering Syria, and an estimated 4.5 million internally displaced people struggling to find safe haven inside the country.

WIRED: What do you think before taking an assignment in such a dangerous place?

MS: It was important to have as much current information on the subject and the situation on the ground in Aleppo before committing to take the assignment.

WIRED: You've repeatedly been in zones of conflict, documented and seen a lot of violence. Why do you keep returning to theaters of war?

MS: I did not set out to become a "combat photographer" when I started my career. I suppose my work was influenced by the events of my generation, namely the 9/11 attacks and the global repercussions in its aftermath. Personally, as I grow older, I find it more and more difficult to continue to return to these places of conflict, because continuously working in war zones is in some ways a selfish choice – one that is hardest to bear for the people that care about you.

That said, I still find some motivation out of a sense of commitment to my work, hoping that the photos will be a factor in the ongoing dialogue about the realities of conflict.

WIRED: What is the story for you in Egypt, currently? What have you photographed these past weeks? What are conditions on the ground like?

MS: My work in Egypt is continuously evolving, parallel to the social and political developments since the start of the Revolution, but not necessarily attached to the news events. I have tried to be there and photograph the important milestones since the fall of Mubarak, but with a personal and sensitive approach that also speaks to my own experience as a foreigner in this country in transition.

The violent events of last month were a dangerous departure from what I’ve witnessed in the past two years. Rocks and sticks gave way to sniper bullets. Isolated street battles common in Cairo were replaced with mass killing.

WIRED: Have you ever got close to your subjects to the point it has caused problems?

MS: I am always careful not to have a negative effect on the situation or subject that I’m photographing, but unfortunately I can't say for certain that I have never gotten anyone in trouble because of my work. In my opinion "professional distance" and "objectivity" are vague terms, because in my work I search for the intimacy and trust that requires me to be close to the subject, to be accepted.

WIRED: You've said that when you began photography you did so on a self-financed trip to the Balkans and that you were more interested in the lifestyle. Does the lifestyle still excite you?

MS: That was 14 years ago and I think I’ve gotten that selfish desire out of my system. Now I’m more interested in sharing, in being part of someone else’s life as much as of my own. I have accepted that the lifestyle is unsustainable.

WIRED: How do you deal with witnessing death?

MS: There is no formula, I still struggle to understand death, especially when it’s the result of random violence, manipulation or when it could have been easily avoided.

WIRED: What are the main frustrations of your work?

MS: The work comes with many frustrations. The main one is finding a balance between my work and my personal life.

WIRED: And how about the rewards?

MS: I recently worked on a story about human trafficking in the Sinai, where Bedouin tribes kidnap and torture African immigrants for ransom. I photographed a survivor of one of these torture camps whose two hands had been brutally cut off by his torturers. The story received an overwhelming response in Germany, where it was published, and a group of doctors who had seen the photograph offered to perform prosthetic surgery on the hands of the survivor.

WIRED: What are your proudest moments of your career so far and how do you measure the impact of your photographs?

MS: Being accepted into Magnum Photos was definitely a proud moment, but I measure the impact of my work in terms of how much it can influence positive change.

WIRED: How does Magnum support your work?

MS: Partly by allowing me to stay in a region – finding assignments that run parallel to my wider body of work on the issues that I’m interested in. But the biggest support comes from a sense of belonging to a unique group of talented photographers that, despite their many differences and backgrounds, share a commitment to carry on the tradition of the agency.

WIRED: What are the most interesting and relevant current discussions about photojournalism and image-making?

MS: The discussion about honesty in photojournalism is very interesting. By this I mean how "truth," commentary and personal vision can have a positive or negative effect when delving into an issue that has real consequences for the subjects involved.

WIRED: You encourage photographers to read more. Any recommendations?

MS: Anything that sparks your imagination – fiction, non-fiction. Lately, I have read a lot of history, and currently George Orwell’s classic Homage to Catalonia.

WIRED: You shoot in color, but sometimes post-process and publish as black and white images. Tell us about that.

MS: Some specific stories I see in black and white. It can depend my mood, or the mood of the work. There’s no formula. I mostly work with an Olympus OM-D E-M5 camera and almost always with just one 35mm F/2 lens. Technically speaking, I find black and white easier – you have more freedom. The picture doesn't need to be perfect. With color, if the colors themselves are not strong then the image does not work. Black and white, on the other hand, gives you more leverage; you have more space to focus on the content, instead of composition or lighting.

WIRED: Given the inherent stress of conflict photography, do you intend to step back from it in the near future?

MS: Depends on what your definition of near future. Eventually yes, but not yet.