On June 15th, la Lettura’s Corriere Art Collection presents a cover that embodies both tragedy and resistance - a visual reminder of how art can bear witness and awaken conscience.
The image, Out of Peace by Giles Duley, stands at the crossroads between memory and warning, between the personal and the universal.
What at first appears to be an object of brutalist design - alien, almost insect-like - is in fact a landmine. Cold, mechanical, and deadly. It is the very type of explosive that, in 2011, tore through Duley’s body while he was documenting the war in Afghanistan, costing him both legs and an arm. But rather than end his path, it redefined it.
Today, Giles Duley is not only a war photographer but also a writer, chef, and CEO of the Legacy of War Foundation. His image for the cover does not seek to shock. It seeks to distill - to reduce war to its cruelest essence. A machine built for destruction. A device indifferent to life. And yet, in Out of Peace, this object becomes a symbol: of survival, of resilience, of the refusal to look away.
The collectible print edition of this issue will be available at newsstands across Italy starting Sunday, June 15th. The digital collectible version will be released on Tuesday, June 17th.
Giles Duley: A Vision Forged in the Aftermath
Born in Wimbledon, London in 1971, Giles Duley began as a music photographer, capturing the faces of fame. But it was in war zones - among the displaced, the wounded, the grieving - that he found his true calling. His storytelling is defined by proximity, humanity, and an unwavering attention to the stories the world prefers to forget.
After surviving the explosion in Afghanistan, Duley returned to the field. His work became sharper, more symbolic, more urgent. Today, his foundation supports communities affected by conflict, while his art continues to frame war not through fire and fury, but through its silent aftermath: the absence, the prosthesis, the mine left behind.
In Out of Peace, the mine is no longer just a threat. It becomes a relic. A fossil of man’s cruelty. And yet, through Duley’s lens, it also becomes a challenge to fate - a visual manifesto that says: I survived you. And I will speak of you.
Out of Peace: A Cover That Confronts and Endures
As Gianluigi Colin, Art Director at Corriere della Sera, reflects:
“Giles Duley’s Out of Peace is not just an image - it’s an act of resistance. The object he photographs may have maimed him, but it did not silence him. It’s a cover that speaks not only of war, but of the fragility of peace. And of the urgent need to preserve it.”
The work anticipates Duley’s upcoming exhibition Out of Place, opening June 19 in Padua, which gathers decades of work documenting the lives of refugees around the world. On the same day, Duley will speak at the University of Padua in a public event presented by Enrico Bossan of the Imago Mundi Foundation - reaffirming the role of photography as testimony, denunciation, and hope.
The collectible edition of the Corriere Art Collection featuring Out of Peace will be on newsstands Sunday, June 15th, while the digital version, certified via blockchain, will be released Tuesday, June 17th.