Philip Jones Griffiths's formidable book Vietnam Inc. (1971) has influenced an entire generation and inspired, among others, entire sequences of Apocalypse Now. According to author Murray Sayle in his preface, Coppola also lifted entire lines of Griffiths's captions for his film's dialogue.

After Vietnam, Jones Griffiths did not feel the need to continue photographing war. He had made his statement, and this statement need not be repeated. He decided instead to expand the boundaries of his world and ours by wandering for months "among the Stone-Age tribes who inhabit the Central Highlands of New Guinea."

Says Griffiths: "They have never sunk to the barbary of the Europeans. For instance, they settle many of their disputes by shaming their enemies, presenting them with gifts that they cannot afford to reciprocate." This sentence sums up Griffith's mordant sense of humour coupled with a strong sense of decency, visible in his most recent book Dark Odyssey, an autobiography in words and pictures.