Ben Brody is an American war photographer whose work is about his country's war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan, and its aftermath. His book Attention Servicemember includes photographs made while enlisted in the U.S. Army working in Public Affairs as a combat photographer in Iraq. [1]
In 2002, at age 22, Brody enlisted in the U.S. Army, "not because he supported the impending invasion of Iraq [...] but because he wanted to photograph it." From 2003 to 2008, he worked in Army Public Affairs as a combat photographer in Iraq. "Brody enjoyed unique access, both physically (moving around the battle space with far greater liberty than civilian journalists were able to) and psychically (wearing the same uniform and subscribing to the same creed as his subjects)." [2] After being discharged, between 2010 and 2018 he spent three to six months a year in Afghanistan as an embedded independent civilian photojournalist.
While in Iraq, the pictures he took were subject to censorship, and selectively edited to portray an optimistic and successful view of the war. The photos released by the Army were propaganda, often wildly at odds with the deteriorating and violent situation on the ground. Later in Afghanistan, his work was again restricted, this time implicitly through the press access and permits granted by the military. [3]
The resulting book, Attention Servicemember (2019), was described in Huck as "using photography and storytelling to communicate the immense brutality of 21st-century warfare, and the way images can be used to sell anything, from government propaganda to vape pens." [4]
In 2021, as the United States Armed Forces completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan, Brody worked remotely, trying to help people stuck on the ground there. His book 300m, which uses an accordion format, pairs reproduction of a WhatsApp chat with a friend and translator from this time, with photographs he made using a 360 degree panoramic toy camera while in Afghanistan. "It follows the friend's attempts to reach the entrance to Kabul's airport in the frenzy [...] It begins 300m (900ft) from the gate". [5]
Spirit of America (SoA) is a US non-governmental and 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that works alongside American military personnel and diplomats to promote American values abroad by saving and improving lives. The organization provides material goods, programs, and personnel to help the United States Government achieve its objectives. Spirit of America was founded in 2003 by Los Angeles based venture capitalist, Jim Hake, who in the wake of the September 11th attacks sought to directly support conventional military and special operation teams performing reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Charity Navigator gave Spirit of America an overall 4-star rating for 2019 fiscal year.
Steve McCurry is an American photographer, freelancer, and photojournalist. His photo Afghan Girl, of a girl with piercing green eyes, has appeared on the cover of National Geographic several times. McCurry has photographed many assignments for National Geographic and has been a member of Magnum Photos since 1986.
Michael Yon is an American writer and photographer. He served in the Special Forces in the early-1980s, and he became a writer in the mid-1990s. He focused on military writing after the invasion of Iraq. Yon has been embedded on numerous occasions with American and British troops in Iraq, most prominently a deployment with the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment of the 25th Infantry Division in Mosul, Iraq that ended in September 2005.
Ashley Gilbertson is an Australian photographer. He is known for his images of the Iraq War and the effects of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq on returning veterans and their families. Gilbertson is a member of VII Photo Agency.
The 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) – abbreviated 3rd SFG(A) and often simply called 3rd Group – is an active duty United States Army Special Forces (SF) group which was active in the Vietnam Era (1963–69), deactivated, and then reactivated in 1990. 3rd Group is designed to deploy and execute nine doctrinal missions: unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, direct action, counter-insurgency, special reconnaissance, counter-terrorism, information operations, counterproliferation of weapon of mass destruction, and security force assistance. The 3rd SFG(A) was primarily responsible for operations within the AFRICOM area of responsibility, as part of the Special Operations Command, Africa (SOCAFRICA). Its primary area of operations (AO) is now Africa as part of a 2015 SOCOM directive but 3rd Group has also been involved in the Caribbean and the Greater Middle East. The 3rd SFG(A) has seen extensive action in the War on Terror and its members have distinguished themselves on the battlefield in Afghanistan.
The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is a global military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks and is the most recent global conflict spanning multiple wars. The main targets of the campaign are militant Islamist movements like Al-Qaeda, Taliban and their allies. Other major targets included the Ba'athist regime in Iraq, which was deposed in an invasion in 2003, and various militant factions that fought during the ensuing insurgency. After its territorial expansion in 2014, the Islamic State militia has also emerged as a key adversary of the United States.
Russell Lee Klika is a newspaper and U.S. military combat photographer, photojournalist and trainer who grew up in Appleton, Wisconsin, 100 miles north of Milwaukee.
War Surgery in Afghanistan and Iraq: A Series of Cases, 2003–2007 is a medical textbook published in July, 2008 by the United States Army and the Walter Reed Army Medical Center's Borden Institute, with a foreword by reporter Bob Woodruff, who was severely injured in the Iraq War in 2006. It has 83 case descriptions, focusing on new methods of treating blast trauma and penetrating wounds. The book includes graphic and controversial photographs of traumatic battle injuries to US military members and civilians.
Paul Richard Watson is a Canadian photojournalist, Pulitzer Prize-winner, and author of three books: Where War Lives,Magnum Revolution: 65 Years of Fighting for Freedom, and Ice Ghosts: The Epic Hunt for the Lost Franklin Expedition (2017). The Guardian newspaper named ICE GHOSTS one of the best science books of 2017. The CBC, Canada’s national broadcaster, put Ice Ghosts at the top of its 2017 "Holiday Gift Guide: 12 Books for the Science and Nature Enthusiast on Your List."
Lynsey Addario is an American photojournalist. Her work often focuses on conflicts and human rights issues, especially the role of women in traditional societies. In 2022, she received a Courage in Journalism Award from the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF).
Raymond Cauchetier was a French photographer, known for his work as the set photographer from 1959 to 1968 on many films of the French New Wave. His photographs are an important record of the New Wave directors at the beginning of their careers, and of their unconventional and groundbreaking production methods. A 2009 profile of Cauchetier in Aperture magazine declared that his photographs "are themselves central works of the New Wave."
Edmund Clark HonFRPS is a British artist and photographer whose work explores politics, representation, incarceration and control. His research based work combines a range of references and forms including bookmaking, installations, photography, video, documents, text and found images and material. Several of his projects explore the War on Terror.
Benjamin Lowy is an American photojournalist. He is best known for his work as a conflict photographer in war zones, and is one of the early adopters of and a vocal proponent for mobile photography.
Thomas Dworzak is a German photographer. He has produced a number of books and is a member of Magnum Photos. He was President of Magnum from 2017 until 2020. Dworzak won a World Press Photo award in 2001 and in 2018 received the Hood Medal from the Royal Photographic Society in the UK.
Peter van Agtmael is a documentary photographer based in New York. Since 2006 he has concentrated on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and their consequences in the United States. He is a member of Magnum Photos.
Sha Fei was a Chinese photojournalist and war photographer best known for his work with the Chinese Communist Party during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–45). Born Situ Chuan (司徒传), he took the pseudonym Sha Fei, that is, a grain of sand in the sky of his country. He has been called "one of the most admired Leftist photographers in China during the wartime years of 1937–1949", and "one of the most influential photographers of his generation". His "warm, dramatic, and ideologically-charged photographic presentations were emulated for decades thereafter".
Jo Metson Scott is a British portrait and documentary photographer, based in London. Her book, The Grey Line, is about British and American soldiers who dissented to the Iraq War.
Waging Peace in Vietnam: U.S. Soldiers and Veterans Who Opposed the War is a non-fiction book edited by Ron Carver, David Cortright, and Barbara Doherty. It was published in September 2019 by New Village Press and is distributed by New York University Press. In March 2023 a Vietnamese language edition of the book was launched at the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Lukas Birk is an Austrian photographer, archivist, and publisher. He is mainly known for his visual archive work in Myanmar and research on Box Camera photography in Afghanistan. Birk has worked on photographic projects, films and visual research in China, South and Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. He has published numerous books on visual culture and photographic history.
In wartime Finland, TK companies were units under the information division of the Finnish army founded before the Winter War, which were active during the Continuation War and the Lapland War. Soldiers working in the companies were called TK men, whose civilian professions usually were journalists, teachers or advertisers. Some of the men were notable authors, illustrators and radio reporters. They acted as war correspondents, war reporters, cinematographers, photographers, illustrators, guides, announcers and announcement designers.