For 50 years George Gittoes has felt compelled to travel to some of the most dangerous places on Earth to wage what he calls a "war against war".
His personal quest has taken him to Vietnam, Cambodia, South Africa, Rwanda, Iraq and Afghanistan.
He doesn't carry a weapon and claims to never suffer from fear.
"There'll be someone with a gun to my head and I'll just give them a hug. It's the hug factor, it's the empathy thing," he said.
He's spent his career bearing witness to some of the world's most brutal conflicts.
What he's learnt, he said, is that underneath we're all the same.
"The problem is people in war zones get dehumanised," he said.
"My job as an artist is to make them more human.
"We're all alike and there's really only a small number of bad people who cause the problems — the psychopaths, the Hitlers — and the majority of humanity always puts their fellow man first."
A touring exhibition titled George Gittoes: On Being There has opened at the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre in Western Sydney.
The exhibition features paintings, film, photography and visual diaries charting his life's work in battle zones around the world.
"I have probably seen more death and violence than anyone who's lived, but I am a complete optimist because I've seen infinitely more human courage and beauty and generosity," he said.
Exhibition curator Rod Pattenden said the artworks force us to think deeper about conflicts most of us only see from the comfort of our loungerooms, and to imagine what it might be like to be there.
"For us consumers of a passive lifestyle, Gittoes is really a wake-up call, a sort of dynamic prick to the eyes, helping us to see and helping us to maybe act more ethically," he said.
"That's really the key element of this show, it doesn't leave you any comfortable distance whatsoever."
Now at the age of 72, Gittoes is questioning whether his efforts could have been better directed elsewhere.
"Maybe I've wasted my life fighting against war. Maybe I should have fought harder for the environment," he said.
"I think that's going to be a large part of the last decades of my life, joining people like Greta Thunberg and saying enough's enough."
