Bringing Photographs of War to the Brooklyn Waterfront
Tyler Hicks traveled with Northern Alliance troops as they captured Kabul, Afghanistan, from the Taliban, in November 2001. Joao Silva photographed the Mahdi Army in Najaf, in 2004, as they fought street by street against the United States military. Michael Kamber returned to Iraq in December 2011 as the United States began removing its last combat troops.
Photographers for The New York Times have covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since the beginning and continue to do so, long after most news organizations have withdrawn. They have brought the crux of the wars to the doorsteps of the American public — often at great personal risk.
“I’ve always wanted to show the reality of war to those who are fortunate enough not to live in a war zone,” said Mr. Silva, who was gravely injured in 2010 in Afghanistan, losing both legs after stepping on a mine.
Adam Ferguson for The New York Times An Afghan woman was rushed from the scene of a suicide car bomb that killed at least eight people and wounded 40. Kabul, Afghanistan. 2009.A selection of images from Iraq and Afghanistan by Times photographers will be shown at Photoville, a festival this weekend and next at Pier 3 in Brooklyn Bridge Park. The exhibit includes several of Mr. Silva’s images as well as others by Mr. Hicks, Mr. Kamber, Lynsey Addario, Stephen Crowley, Adam Ferguson, Ruth Fremson, Ashley Gilbertson, James Hill, Chang W. Lee and Moises Saman.
Photoville is produced by United Photo Industries, in partnership with Brooklyn Bridge Park and Photo District News, among others. The outdoor show uses empty shipping containers as temporary exhibit space (and promises food trucks, a dog run, a beer garden and more). Bruce Gilden, Sim Chi Yin and Russell Frederick are among the featured photographers at the festival. Exhibitors include the Magnum Foundation, Photo District News and the Open Society Institute.
Among the photographs on exhibit is a series of three images (Slide 2 is one) made by Mr. Hicks on Nov. 12, 2001.
“I was traveling with one of the first groups of Northern Alliance soldiers to reclaim Kabul from the Taliban when the soldiers captured a wounded Taliban prisoner,” Mr. Hicks wrote in 2002. “Without remorse, with something strangely like joy, they quickly executed him before continuing their mission south. In that moment, the fact that they were soldiers did not seem relevant. I saw our shocking lack of humanity. They — like me, like the man they shot — were all human beings. Those who died and killed there did so not because of their passion to fight, but because they had been ordered to.”
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times Azad Abuzaid Mohammadkhak, 23, a Kurdish fighter, stood guard against an attack from Islamic militants. Shinerwe Mountain, Iraq. 2003.
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