Pictures

so she's officially recognized as a therapeutic help to assist you?

is any part of this being payed by the government? I mean food, vet bills etc...
is Gunny a part of your vet status by the government?

Photographer Joao Silva Wounded in Afghanistan

October 25, 2010Joao Silva, a contract photographer with The New York Times, suffered severe wounds to his legs and other injuries when he stepped on a mine near Arghandab, Afghanistan, on Saturday.   He was flown to a military hospital in Germany that night. He was in stable condition on Sunday, the Times reported.

Silva was embedded with a unit of the Fourth Infantry Division.  Three US soldiers sustained concussions in the blast.  According to the Times, medics reached Silva within seconds. He underwent surgery at a military hospital in Kandahar Province, and was then treated at Bagram Air Base near Kabul before being flown to  Germany.

In a memo to The New York Times staff, executive editor Bill Keller wrote, “Those of you who know Joao will not be surprised to learn that throughout this ordeal he continued to shoot pictures.”

In  his staff memo, Keller noted that the military has been in touch both with the Times’ Kabul Bureau and Silva’s wife, Vivian, at the Silvas’ home in Johannesburg, South Africa.  He noted, “Barry Bearak of the Johannesburg Bureau, a good friend of the Silvas, and Michael Slackman in Berlin, have cut through red tape to get Vivian visa-ed and ticketed so she can join her husband in Germany.”
The Portuguese-born Silva, 44, has been based in Johannesberg  throughout his career. He has covered conflicts in Africa, the Balkans, the Middle East, Iraq and elsewhere. He is the co-author, with Greg Marinovich, of The Bang-Bang Club, about the work of photojournalists covering ethnic violence in South Africa before the country’s first democratic elections in 1994. He has won awards from World Press Photo, Pictures of the Year International, and other honors.   

Marinovich, Silva's long time friend and collaborator, wrote on his blog this weekend that Silva "has a penchant for danger and risk, but is never reckless. Especially not in the many war zones he covers." He also noted, "Silva is the most talented and courageous contemporary conflict photographer. Bar none.

The Bang Bang Club was the name given to four young photographers; Greg Marinovich (Ryan Phillippe), Kevin Carter (Taylor Kitsch), Ken Oosterbroek and Joao Silva, whose photographs captured the final bloody days of white rule in South Africa. Two were awarded Pulitzer Prizes for their acclaimed work. The film tells the remarkable and sometimes harrowing story of these young men - and the extraordinary extremes they went to in order to capture their pictures. Robin (Malin Akerman) is their photo-editor, who looked out for them, protected them and made sure their photographs were seen across the world. Based on the book by Marinovich and Silva, The Bang Bang Club tells the true story of these four young men, recounting their relationships with each other and the stresses, tensions and moral dilemmas of working in situations of extreme violence, pain and suffering. It is also the story of the final demise of apartheid and the birth of a new South Africa.

João Silva

Date of Birth: August 9, 1966 (Lisbon, Portugal)
Nationality: South African
Wife: Vivian
Children: Isabel, 6, and Gabriel, 4
www.joaosilva.co.za

Career
João's first employer as a photographer was the Alberton record. He convinced the editors to let him cover the violence in Thokoza township. He finally resigned from the newspaper in order to freelance full time supplying images to Reuters and The Star. In 1996 he started shooting for The New York Times, becoming a contract photographer in 2000.

João's work has been recognized with numerous awards including a 2006, Honorable mention, Spot News stories, and a 2005, 2nd prize, Contemporary Issues.

This is João's second warzone injury. He has previously been hit by shrapnel in the face.
Sergeant Jesse E. Leach & Lance Corporal Valdez-Castillo

In November 2006 João photographed Marine sergeant, Jesse E. Leach, retrieving from the line of fire a radio operator, Lance Cpl. Juan Valdez-Castillo, who had just been shot by a sniper on a foot patrol in Karma, Iraq. See the multimedia presentation (click on chapter Sniper I).

Those images were seen around the world and earned João a World Press Photo award. The injured soldier later wrote to The New York Times saying that João's photographs had helped him and his family understand what had happened, and what he had gone through. The images also inspired artist K. J. Battles' 'The Iron Sergeant'.
Bang Bang Club

João was a member of the so-called Bang-Bang Club, a group of four photographers that covered the unrests in the townships of South Africa in the mid-nineties. The three other members were Kevin Carter, Greg Marinovich and Ken Oosterbroek.

A documentary entitled The Life of Kevin Carter: Casualty of the Bang Bang Club was nominated for an Academy Award in 2006. A movie about the group, starring Ryan Phillippe, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2010.

Showcase: The Bang Bang Club (Part 1) & (Part 2), The New York Times - 20 & 21 August 2009 respectively.

Books
With Greg Marinovich: The Bang-Bang Club: Snapshots from a Hidden War, Basic Books; First Trade Paper Edition edition, 2001.

In the Company of God, STE Publishers, 2005.
Press Coverage

    * Widespread Impact From an Afghan Mine
      The New York Times, Lens blog - 23 October 2010.
    * Photographer Joao Silva Wounded in Afghanistan
      Photo District News - 25 October 2010
    * New York Times photographer wounded in Afghanistan
      LA Times - 25 October 2010
    * New York Times photographer severely wounded in Afghanistan
      British Journal of Photography - 25 October 2010
    * Joao Silva: 'Acting Despite Fear'
      The New York Times - 26 October 2010
    * Land Mines Are War Crimes
      Foreign Policy - 27 October 2010
    * True stuff of legends
      Johannesburg Times - 1 November 2010
    * My friend, Joao Silva, the best war photographer in the world
      The Daily Maverick - no date

For more information:

Greg Marinovich
Tel. +27 83 258 8908
info@storytaxi.com