They were just kids’: Award-winning photographer reflects on Bali Nine photos

Walkley Award winner Mick Tsikas has spent almost two decades documenting the fate of the Bali Nine. Video by AAP

Transcript

00:00I was blown away. They were just kids. They were 19-year-old kids.

00:04They obviously did something stupid, but they were way over their heads of what they've done.

00:11They didn't have a clue what was going to happen to them.

00:14Shocked. It was the first time I heard anyone being sentenced to death.

00:19And that young, seeing someone that young, it really resonated with me. I really felt it.

00:25I felt sorry for them. From the moment I saw them, I felt sorry for them.

00:29They were young kids that made a mistake. Did they deserve 20 years?

00:34In Australia, they would have gotten five to ten years.

00:40Here, they get death. They knew the price, but as young kids, you're bulletproof.

00:45Ten foot tall and bulletproof.

00:47They've lost half their life in a Bali prison, and now they're going to come to another prison.

00:54I think it would be bittersweet. They'll be happy at their home,

00:57but they've been calling Bali for 20 years their home.