A bride waving a flag in bombed-out Beirut: Christine Spengler’s best photograph

Shortly after arriving, I was kidnapped by a militia group who said I was a spy. A decade later, I went back to show life and beauty returning to the city'

I spent my childhood in Madrid and I went to the Prado every week from the age of seven. I would cry at the works by Goya. His paintings of the Spanish civil war moved me like nothing else. I never grew up around photography - I grew up around Goya. Even as a child, I was attracted to the dark fates of the world.

Over the course of my career, I've covered 13 conflicts, more than many of the famous war photographers of my generation. I've worked in Vietnam and Cambodia, Eritrea and Northern Ireland, Afghanistan and Iran. I've always tried to capture a glimpse of hope against a background of drama and destruction. That has not always been possible.