By: Writter OD
David Gilkey, an NPR photojournalist who chronicled pain and beauty
in war and conflict, was killed in Afghanistan on Sunday along with
NPR's Afghan interpreter Zabihullah Tamanna. David and
Zabihullah were on assignment for the network traveling with an Afghan
army unit. They were in an armored Humvee driven by a soldier of the
Afghan National Army. All three were killed after the Humvee was hit by
rocket propelled grenades in an apparent ambush. NPR Pentagon
correspondent Tom Bowman and producer Monika Evstatieva were also in the
convoy, traveling in a separate vehicle. They were not injured. Tom
reports that when the journalists' remains arrived by helicopter at
Camp Shorab in Helmand Province — where the U.S. Army 10th Mountain
Division has a training mission — an honor guard of "dozens and dozens"
of U.S. soldiers stood at attention and saluted.
David was 50 and Zabihullah, who for years also worked as a photographer, was 38. David
was considered one of the best photojournalists in the world — honored
with a raft of awards including a George Polk Award in 2010, a national
News and Documentary Emmy in 2007 and dozens of distinctions from the
White House News Photographers Association, including 2011 Still
Photographer of the Year. It is fair to say that David
witnessed some of humanity's most challenging moments: He covered wars
in Afghanistan and Iraq. He covered the conflict between Israel and
Hamas in Gaza. He covered the end of the apartheid regime in South
Africa. He covered the devastating earthquake in Haiti, famine in
Somalia and most recently the Ebola epidemic in Liberia.
His images were haunting — amid the rubble, he found beauty; amid war, he found humanity. Back in 2010, after he covered the earthquake in Haiti, he talked about his craft. The camera, he said, made things easier. "It's not like you put the camera to your face and therefore it makes what you're seeing OK, but certainly you can put yourself in a zone," David said. "It's hard, but you can't get caught up in it and become part of it. You still need to maintain your state of mind that you are helping tell this story."
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