I’m William Keo, 25 years old, and a photographer and nominee at Magnum Photos. Photography is not my first job nor is it a random thing, I chose this job. Before, I was a coach in an American football club, I served French fries at McDonald’s, I was a mover and also an art director in the advertising world for a few years.

These are themes that I am naturally drawn to, sometimes obsessed with, and grew up with. My father used to tell me how he woke up in the middle of the night because the ground was shaking, announcing the arrival of B-52 bombers during the Cambodian war. He told me how our family was hated by the Khmer Rouge and how they were detained in labour camps.
I live in the poor northern suburbs of Paris, and this is not Paris. There is a social border where we are that is made to feel like we come from there, like we will never pass the ‘périphérique’, the road that separates Paris and its suburbs. Throughout my schooling and in my various jobs, being from this district is a weight that I have sometimes been made to feel. The 93 district is one of the biggest myths that France has created, having the reputation of a violent and very poor place. It's not totally false but it's not totally true and it's stigmatising.
When I started photography, I worked for NGOs that immediately sent me on the exodus of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. They were on a long exile, and I felt connected to their experience.

It is extremely difficult to photograph these events. From a human point of view, seeing human suffering is the worst thing for me. I'm more afraid of seeing that than the stress of the front lines, which is a manageable fear when you have common sense. When we cover major events like this, I always want to capture the epic dimension of what is happening, so I am often crushed by the weight of events because I am afraid of failing to do so. When you're in the middle of the news, you can lack perspective and understanding, so I sometimes still don't understand all the nuances and subtleties involved in what I photograph.

You have to stop when it becomes too heavy or too emotional – you have to take breaks and come back. Sometimes, when nothing holds me back anymore because I'm too emotionally exhausted, I finish the project.

It's antinomic, but for me photography is not really the right medium to say complex things, contrary to what one might think. I find myself in complex situations that I try to explain with very simple photos. Photography is something that is shared, that is designed for others, for an audience. I don't see myself elaborating things that are too complicated for a general public – the simpler it is, the more universal it will be and the stronger it will be.

When I do my editing, I try to keep the image as honest as possible. I'm not sure that photography is the most relevant medium to be authentic. Sometimes a photo with atmosphere will say more about a situation than a ‘photojournalistic’ photo.

I try to document what is important to me, on my scale. I necessarily feel responsible when I work on subjects that are politically important or close to me. Photography participates in the collective memory; it is an important medium for posterity.

These are mainly photographs I have taken for French newspapers and magazines. I worked as a pure photojournalist; the idea was to capture the atmosphere of the conflict in the south of the country. There are landscapes, portraits and more intimate scenes of life – I wanted to feel the tense and insidious atmosphere of the war.

Often, it's very simple. I'm curious about something or I have a question, and I look for the answer with photography. I'm not the kind of photographer who intellectualises my projects too much. Most of the time I just plan the photos I need to tell my stories, try to get the right light and go for it.

The iconographic power of photography makes the medium unique – photography has an emotional range that I don't find in video.

My job is not to be right or to have an opinion, even if it can be seen in photography. Telling a story from both sides allows a viewer to understand a complex situation. No one gets up in the morning and says he is going to do evil; he has interests to defend. The world is grey – it's not as linear as saying there are bad guys and good guys.

My work on my suburb – I love where I live and where I grew up as much as I hate it, and I am deeply proud of the photos I have been producing for the last few months, especially since I joined Magnum. My mentors Jérôme Sessini and Patrick Zachmann have encouraged me to work in this direction and this allows me to give another image to this territory, to put into images this myth of the ‘French ghetto.’

I learned that the world is grey, that nothing is simple. I can share common views with people I'm supposed to be in deep contradiction with – I've had a deeply interesting conversation with a French jihadist in Syria, I've talked to genocidists in Darfur, and common ground with the anti-crime squad, a violent police force in France.