A collection of Anja Niedringhaus‘ powerful images from Afghanistan and Pakistan is on display at the Bronx Documentary Center from April 4, 2024, 10 years to the day since she was shot and killed in Afghanistan while covering presidential polls. They will also be featured in a book accompanying the exhibition.
“I do my job simply to report people’s courage with my camera and with my heart.” – Anja Niedringhaus
Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Anja Niedringhaus died on April 4, 2014, killed by an Afghan police commander, who emptied his AK-47 rifle into the car in which she was sitting. It occurred in eastern Afghanistan on the eve of a critical vote for president, an event Anja knew would test the courage of Afghans. She was ready with her camera and with her heart.
In the course of her work, Anja traveled through some of the most difficult years of the protracted Afghan war, reaching deep into the soul of Afghans, her pictures often serving to remind us of our own humanity. The exhibition offers rare glimpses into lives seen by few, such as pictures taken during a first-ever embed with the Pakistan army in the freezing Hindu Kush Mountain peaks on the border with Afghanistan.
Among the images to be displayed is a simple, yet powerful reminder of the innocence of children, even as war surrounds them. In the photograph, children play amid mesh-encased blast-proof Hesco bags, designed to protect them from feared terrorist attacks against an election commission office in the eastern Afghanistan town of Khost. The picture was taken the day before Anja died.
The exhibition and the book serve to remind us of the extraordinary sacrifices journalists make to keep us all informed. This is a particularly powerful lesson at a time when journalists are dying, suffering life-changing injuries, being targeted, or being imprisoned at an alarming rate.
Anja received the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) Courage in Journalism award in 2005. After her death, through a generous grant from the Howard G Buffett Foundation, the Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Journalism Award was established and is awarded annually to an extraordinary woman photojournalist, whose images reflect Anja’s commitment to reporting the courage of others.
The exhibition is curated by Ami Beckmann, Kathy Gannon, and Muhammed Muheisen.
The book and exhibitions have been made possible through the support of The Howard G. Buffett Foundation, The Associated Press, and the Bronx Documentary Center.
The exhibition will travel on May 9 to the Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics, and Public Policy, co-sponsored by the Nieman Foundation at the Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge MA.
Anja Niedringhaus
April 4 – May 5, 2024
Opening Reception: Thursday, April 4, 2024, at 6:30 pm
Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism Award ceremony at 7:30 pm
Bronx Documentary Center Annex
364 E 151st St.
Bronx, NY 10455
www.Bronxdoc.org
