From an Island upbringing, living on Tapnell Farm and going to Ryde School, award-winning photographer Giles Clarke has made a speciality of capturing the worst of human misery around the world.

From men in cages in El Salvador, to starving children in Yemen and Somalia, and mistreated migrants in Libya, Giles works with the United Nations and the world's press.

Now, he is bringing his work home for a six-week exhibition at Quay Arts, opening with a Meet the Artist tonight (August 2).

After his IW childhood, Giles, 54, found himself working in photo labs in West Berlin at the height of the Cold War and from then on his life was always behind a lens.

Although he now lives in Harlem, New York, he frequently returns to his roots and is delighted to be showing off his heart-rending, challenging pictures on home turf.

Giles said, "My work with the UN is my most important. I help them highlight issues that, to be frank, most people don't know about. It also helps them raise money and awareness with governments."

One example Giles gave is the Anglophone war going on in Cameroon, where French speaking and English speaking tribes are in conflict.

Taking pictures in war zones is not easy and apart from the threat to life and limb, Gailes has seen harrowing images of dead children and mass starvation.

"But you learn to take the coat off when you get home. You have to," he said.

At the exhibition opening at Quay Arts, Giles will show a short film he has made about a doctor in the ganglands of Guatemala, then will be interviewed by Paul Armfield before answering questions.

There will be around 70 images on show in the West Gallery, pictures he has had printed by Indigo Printers, of Godshill.

He will also be auctioning off a moody photograph of Freshwater Bay, in aid of Mountbatten adn Aspire, Ryde.